Skyscraper
by Marishka12
Summary: It's the middle of the night. There is a man standing at Tori's bedside, holding a knife to her throat. He's threatening to kill her. He's absolutely terrifying. Tori's world is suddenly turned upside down.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: If I owned Victorious, it wouldn't be over right now. So obviously I don't.**

Tori's POV

I sighed heavily and threw my notebook down. "Andre, I give up. I'm never gonna get it." I was so stressed out about my last two final exams. It was the end of May and in just a few days, I would be done with junior year and then a few months later, I would be a senior. I couldn't wait for senior year!

"Tori, come on, just focus," he said with a smile. "You can do it."

"No, I can't," I told him. "I've never been good with chemistry and now I've got to take a final test on it? That's just crap." I ran my hand through my hair. "I don't even care anymore. I'll just fail."

"Hey, everyone has to go through it; you're not the only one." He picked up my review from the coffee table. "Want me to quiz you some more?"

"No way," I said. "Let's just take a break." I got up and went in the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. I unscrewed it and took a small sip. I screwed it back on and turned around. Andre was standing just a few feet away from me. I gasped and jumped back. "Andre…you scared me," I put my hand over my heart.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." he said and backed up. "I'll just back up a little."

I slowly smiled. "You know…I actually like it when you're that close."

"Oh…you mean like this?" He stepped closer to me and put his arms around my waist. "Is this better?" he whispered.

I gulped. My heart was beating widely in my chest. "Yeah…it's better," I looked up at him and our eyes were connected. I smiled and said, "Hi Andre,"

He smirked and said, "Hey Tori," Then he tucked hair behind my ear. He leaned in and when he was inches from my lips, he whispered, "Am I too close?"

I shook my head. "Not close enough," I pressed my lips to his and kissed him. It was like fireworks went off in my stomach. I always imagined what it would be like to kiss Andre since I'd liked him from day one, but imagining is nothing compared to the actual feeling.

Our lungs were screaming for air, so we reluctantly pulled apart a few moments later. We caught our breath and both said, "Whoa," Then we went in to kiss some more.

"Finally!" I heard someone exclaim ten seconds into this kiss.

Andre and I immediately pulled apart and looked at where the voice was coming from. I saw Trina standing at the bottom of the stairs. I groaned and said, "Trina, what do you want?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing," she said with a smile. "I'm just saying finally, because it's about time you and Andre got together. Everyone knows you guys are perfect for each other!"

"Would you just get out of here, Trina?" I exclaimed. "Give me and Andre some privacy."

"Oh, I'll give you guys some privacy." she said with a wink and walked out.

I sighed in aggravation and looked back at Andre. He was smiling at me. "I'm sorry. My sister can be…annoying."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that." he said with a giggle. "Well, listen; um…it's getting late. I need to head on home. We've both got tests tomorrow and we need sleep."

"It's not that late." I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and looked at the time. It was almost ten. Where did the time go? I sighed. "Okay, maybe it is," I put my phone back in my pocket and looked up at Andre. "But I don't want you to leave."

"Tori…" he said slowly and leaned in and kissed me again. When we pulled apart, he said, "Just ten more hours and we'll see each other at school. It'll get here before you know it."

I looked down and crossed my arms.

"Hey, don't be pouty," he said and then smiled. "Just go get some sleep and tomorrow will get here before you know it. Okay?" When I didn't say anything, he loudly said, "Okay?"

"Fine," I said still pouty. "But I'm walking you outside."

"I can live with that." he said and we walked through the living room and out the door. We'd been so busy with studying that we didn't even know that it had started to rain. It was pouring down rain.

We stood on the porch not moving at first. "What the heck?" I said. "Since when did it start raining?"

"I don't know," said Andre looking up at the sky. "I didn't even know it was supposed to rain."

I sighed. "I guess I can go get us some umbrellas."

I started to walk towards the door, but Andre grabbed my hand. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I don't wanna get wet." I told him.

He smirked. "What? Is Tori Vega afraid of a little water?"

I smiled and crossed my arms. "Oh, is that how you're gonna be?"

"Yep," he said. "Hey, I have an idea." He grabbed my hand again and pulled me out into the rain.

"Andre, what are you doing?" I screeched. "It's cold out here!"

"Oh, man up," he said jokingly. Once we reached his car, he turned to me and put his hands around my waist. "I'm sorry, but…there's something I've always wanted to do." He slowly leaned in and kissed me passionately in a way that took my breath away. I wrapped my arms around his neck and instantly kissed him back.

When we pulled apart, I said, "Have you always wanted to kiss me or kiss a girl in the rain?"

"Both," he said and moved his hands from around my waist and put them on my cheeks. He brushed my now wet hair behind my ears. "My God, you're so beautiful, baby,"

My heart fluttered at hearing him call me baby. I'd heard him call his other girlfriends that and I always got a tad bit jealous hearing it. I couldn't believe he was saying it to me. I smiled and said, "Thanks,"

"Okay, get inside," he whispered. "I can tell you're freezing right now."

"I'm not cold." I lied. My teeth were chattering and I was shivering.

"You're shivering, Tori; I know you're cold." he said. He leaned in to give a kiss on my forehead. "Get inside and get warmed up."

I smiled up at him and then ran back to the front door to try and avoid getting wet. Oh who am I kidding? I was already soaked. "See you in ten hours!" I yelled out to him.

"Can't wait," he said.

I laughed and went back in my house.

I put my back against the door and stood there in a daydream. I probably would have stood there forever had it not been for my mom coming in the living room. "Tori, it's late; you need to get in bed." She eyed me up and down. "And dry off before you freeze to the bone."

"Mhmm," I mumbled. "I'm gonna take a quick shower and then I'll get in bed." I usually showered in the mornings, but since I was soaking wet and freezing cold, I decided to shower that night.

She giggled. "Goodnight, Tori," She turned and went back to her and my dad's bedroom.

I headed up the stairs and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Once I was out, I came back downstairs and glanced at my chemistry review for a few minutes, attempting to understand it some more, but it was no use. I figured I knew enough of it to at least pass, so I put it in my notebook and went upstairs to go to bed.

I felt someone's hand gripped around my upper arm. Whoever had a grip on me was also shaking me. Confused, I opened my eyes and saw a creepy stranger at my bedside. My brain was screaming "Stranger danger!" Noticing his appearance, one word came to mind: pedophile. I gasped and shrunk closer into my bed. My heart immediately picked up speed. "Who are you?" I quickly asked.

"You don't need to know." he whispered angrily. "Get up right now."

"But…why are you in my house and in my room?" I asked nervously. "And how did you get in?" I had a million more questions swimming around in my head, but I only had the courage to ask those few.

"Just shut up!"

I let out a squeak. "What do you want?"

"You," he said and pulled a knife out from behind him. He put it up to my throat and I caught my breath. "You're gonna get up and come with me. Understand?"

"My dad's a cop." I said shakily. "You can't be here right now. He'll…he'll catch you and…it won't be good for you."

"Listen to me…I don't care what your dad does for a living," he said in a low voice. "He could be the President of the United States for all I care and I would still be here. If you don't come with me and do exactly as I say, I will kill you and your whole family right now." He touched my throat with his knife, but it didn't cut me. "Don't think I won't, because believe me…I'll do it. Get up…and come with me right now."

My heart was beating so widely that I thought it would explode. I was frozen in terror and didn't know what to do. I had two options: I could refuse to go with him, but then he would kill me and my family or I could go with him, but just thinking about what he probably wanted to do with me was horrifying. Either way, I was screwed. I didn't know if he was bluffing or not, but I didn't wanna take any chances.

I obviously wanted to refuse to go with him, but his knife was right up to my throat. If I made one wrong move, he would bear down. I didn't have a choice. I sighed shakily and said, "Okay,"

"Good," he said and took the knife away from my throat. I let out a sigh of relief. "Now get up,"

I gulped and climbed out of bed, but he stayed right at my side. As soon as I was up, he put his arm around me and held me in a tight grip. "Stay at my side," He put the knife up to my throat. "Or else,"

I moaned and nodded.

"Get your shoes," he whispered. I looked to my left and saw my Ugg boots and he let me put on my boots, but he stayed right behind me the whole time. As I was pulling my left boot on, I thought about what was happening. I was about to get kidnapped. Oh, my God. I felt like I was in some kind of horror movie.

As soon as my shoes were on, I stood up and he wrapped his arm around me in a tight grip again. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. "Okay, now we're gonna go downstairs and head outside. Don't say a word once we're outside, understand?"

I slightly nodded. "Yes,"

He kept his arm around me as we walked through the house. My dad has told me and Trina many times that if a person gets you into their car that you're basically screwed, but if you can do everything in your power to stop them before you get out there then you have a much better chance of getting to safety. I thought about doing something to him like hitting him in the crotch or elbowing him in the face or anything to stop him from taking me, but I was so terrified that I was having trouble just seeing straight. Plus, his knife was right against my back and if he moved it an inch inward, it would stab me.

When we got to the front door, he said, "Open it,"

It took me forever to get the lock to come undone since I was so shaky. I had never been so terrified in all my life. I wanted so much for my dad to come in and save me from this creepy man. I'd heard one too many stories from my dad about men who kidnap girls, do awful things to them, and then kill them. Those stories were interesting before, but now that I was the girl that was being kidnapped, it wasn't so interesting.

It was absolutely, completely one hundred percent terrifying.

**I'm baaaaaack! Haha :) I'm actually posting this sooner than I originally planned, because like always, two of my friends pestered me into doing it. I know I say that a lot, but it's true…that's why I update half the time.**

**Any-who, as you can tell, this story is going to get very intense. I won't say how long Tori is with this guy, but it's long enough that she does go through an immense amount of pain. Seriously, the things she goes through is just…it's bad.**

**Until next chapter…byeeee! :)**

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Trina's POV

I woke up the next morning at 6:20. I got up and immediately hopped in the shower. I normally get in later since Tori is usually in at that time, but she was still asleep. At least I assumed she was; her door was closed and I wasn't hearing any noise in her room.

I was dressed and ready by 7:15. That's a record for me honestly. People probably think it's easy to look as pretty as me, but they have no idea what they're talking about. It's hard to look as good as I do every single day. No one understands what I go through to look as great as me. I guess my incredible talent was just a bonus.

"Good morning, my beautiful parents!" I announced when I came down the stairs. I'd been in such a good mood lately. I couldn't believe I was graduating on Friday.

My parents looked at me from the kitchen. My dad smiled and my mom giggled. "Hello there, Trina," she said. "You hungry?"

"Starving," I said and sat at the table.

"Where's Tori?" asked Dad.

"Still asleep," I told him.

"Still?" he said and I nodded. "Dang, I hope she's okay. Will you go wake her up, Trina?"

I groaned and said, "Why me?"

"Because she's your sister and because I said so." he told me. "Now please just go wake her up right now or she's gonna be late."

"Ugh, fine!" I said and got up and headed up the stairs. I went to her room and knocked on the door. "Tori, wake up!" I didn't hear a thing behind the door. I groaned loudly and banged on the door. "Tori, if you don't wake up now, you're gonna be late! Stop being so lazy!" I still didn't hear a thing. "Tori!" I screamed and threw the door open.

I was shocked to see that she wasn't in bed. I looked around the room. "Tori?" I walked up to the bed and pushed the covers all the way back to make sure she wasn't hiding. There was no one there. I turned around and looked around her room some more. "Tori?" I went to her closet and opened the door. "Tori, if you're hiding in your closet, that's pretty messed up." I pushed back her clothes and looked on the ground. Nothing there except for her shoes.

"Hmm," I said and walked down the hall. I walked into my room and looked around. "Tori, you better not be in my room." I looked all around and even under my bed and in my closet. She wasn't there. Then I went to the bathroom and no one was there. I sighed and went downstairs. "I couldn't find her." I said halfway down the stairs.

My parents both turned to me. My mom said, "What do you mean you can't find her?"

"It means what it means, Mom." I said. "I can't find her. She's not in her room, my room, or the bathroom."

My parents exchanged nervous glances. "You don't think anything could have happened to her?" asked my mom nervously.

"Okay, let's not panic." said my dad as calmly as possible. "Let's just look around some more. I'm sure she's around her somewhere." We broke up and searched the whole entire house and even outside. When we met up in the kitchen ten minutes later, still no luck. We didn't have a clue as to where she was.

My mom was starting to look really worried and my dad was getting anxious. "Call 911," said my mom. "She's not here."

"Okay, look, what are the odds that someone came in this house and took her?" said my dad. He was trying to act calm, but I could tell he was freaking out on the inside. He was just trying to be the voice of reason. "It's rare that something like this happens. She's probably…she might just be at school already."

I pulled my phone out and saw the time. "Dad, come on," I said. "It's barely 7:30. She never goes to school this early."

"Try calling her!" exclaimed my mom.

I shook my head. "I saw her phone in her room."

They both groaned. "Well…" said my dad after a while. "Do you think…that she could have run away?"

"No!" I exclaimed. "She was happy. There would be no reason for her to run away. And besides…all of her clothes were in her closet. If she ran away, she would have grabbed clothes, but there weren't any missing."

"Well…has she gotten a new boyfriend recently?" he asked.

I was about to say no, but I remembered something from the night before. Andre and Tori were standing in the kitchen making out. I wasn't sure if they were dating or not, but I still brought it up. "Well…last night, I saw her and Andre kissing. I don't know if they're actually boyfriend girlfriend, but I definitely saw them kissing."

My parents just stood there and thought about that for a moment. Then my mom's eyes lit up and she said, "You know…Tori did look really giddy and happy last night after Andre left." Her eyes widened. "Call him! Maybe he knows something!"

"Okay," I said and immediately called Andre.

"Hello?" he said after the third ring.

"Andre, hey, it's Trina." I started off. "Listen, have you seen Tori? My parents and I have looked everywhere and we can't find her. Is she with you?"

"Uh…no, I haven't seen her." he said. He gulped and said, "What's going on?"

"We don't know where Tori is." I told him. "And we're trying to figure out where she could be." I sighed shakily and ran my hand through my hair. "Did she talk to you about running away or anything like that?"

"No, she didn't tell me anything." said Andre. "But I don't think Tori would run away. She was really happy with her life and besides, she's not the kind of girl to run away from something." I could already tell that Andre was telling the truth. Just by the sound of his voice, he was terrified.

I bit my lip. I was suddenly scared for my sister's life. "Then you know what this means, right?"

"What?"  
"That if Tori didn't run away and no one knows where she is, then someone came into our house last night and kidnapped her!" At my words, my parents looked at me in a panic.

"That can't be the case!" he exclaimed. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than me. "There's no way she was taken. Are you sure your whole house has been searched?"

"Yes," I told him. "Me and my parents looked around the whole house and even outside. She was nowhere."

"What about her phone?" he said quickly. "Have you tried calling her?"

"Her phone's in her room; wouldn't do any good calling it," I said.

"Oh, my gosh, okay, um…" He sighed shakily. "Just…if you haven't done it already, call the police. Let me know how it goes." He was so shook up, I could tell.

"Okay, bye, Andre," I said and hung up. I looked up at my parents. "Call the police now."

My dad ran in the kitchen and grabbed the house phone. He dialed 911 and held it to his ear. After a couple of seconds, he was talking. "Yeah, I'd like to report a missing teenage girl." He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "She's my daughter."

…..

It was thirty minutes later and our house was crawling with people. It was filled with family, police officers, and detectives. While my parents were being questioned in the kitchen, I went upstairs. I had to push past a bunch of people to get to my room.

I closed and locked my door. I looked around my room for a minute and then ran to my bedside table. I opened the bottom drawer and found an old photo album. I grabbed it and sat on the floor. I flipped through it until I finally found the picture I was looking for: the one from my birthday where Tori is sitting in my lap and our arms are around each other. I put my hand on the picture and rubbed my finger over her face. I didn't realize I was crying until a tear slid down my cheek.

"Please let them find you, baby sis," I whispered. "Please…"

**Hope you guys enjoyed this! Thanks for your reviews, keep them coming! I love each and every one of you guys' reviews! :)**

**Next chapter is when things really get intense. It will be in Tori's POV…**


	3. Chapter 3

Tori's POV

After struggling for hours, I knew there was no use in trying to get free. I was strapped to the bed by strong cables around my wrists and ankles. I was bound to that bed and there was nothing I could do about it. Once I realized I wasn't gonna get out, I started to cry. I cried and I cried and I cried. I never knew I would get myself in this situation. I hoped to God that I would make it out alive, but I really didn't know.

I cried for a good while before the man came in the room. He came to the bedside and stared down at me. I gulped and said, "I wanna go home." My eyes were swollen from all the crying and I was pretty sure my face was blotchy. When I cry a lot, that's what I end up looking like.

He laughed evilly which made me flinch. Everything about him made me flinch. "Well, that's just too dang bad, isn't it?" He crossed his arms. "You're mine now. The life you had before, well…you'll never have it again. You might as well kiss it goodbye."

"But…but I…" I sighed heavily. "I don't belong here. My…my dad's a cop. When you get caught, you'll go to prison. It's…it's illegal to kidnap people." I was trying to keep my voice strong, but it was no use. I was too scared.

"Wow, you must be stupid!" he said and smacked my head. "Just as I said before, I don't care that your dad is a cop. And what do you mean when? I'm never gonna get caught. You know why?" He hesitated for a few seconds and then continued. "Because when we go out in public, if people ask who you are, you will not tell them who you really are. By the way, do you mind telling me your actual name?"

I hesitated and shakily asked, "Uh…don't you already know that if you took me out of my own home?"

"Just answer the question!" he yelled.

"Tori Vega," I told him quickly.

He smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Miss Vega." He turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and locking it.

I cried for the rest of the day. He left me strapped to that bed for two whole days. Even though I was exhausted, I couldn't sleep and even though I was starving, I couldn't eat. It wasn't like eating was much of a choice since he didn't give me any food. I figured all he'd do was keep me strapped to the bed and I thought to myself, "I think I can handle this," Little did I know that things were about to get much worse.

After those two days, he released me from the cables. He led me out of the bedroom and in the living room. This was the grungiest little house I'd ever seen. It had a tiny kitchen, a little living room, two bedrooms, two small bathrooms, and a few hallways. He led me in the living room and there he handed me a change of clothes. "Put this on,"

I grabbed what he handed me, which was a pair of smelly jeans, some worn out tennis shoes, and an old red t-shirt. "Uh…okay, um…I'll just…go in the bathroom."

I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my elbow and pulled me back. "I don't think so, Miss Vega. You change in here."

"But…but I–"

"In case I haven't already made myself clear, let me just clarify a few things with you." He walked right up to me until he was just inches from me. "You do everything that I tell you to do, understand? And you do it the first time asked, got it? There will be no back-talk, yelling, struggling, or any of that stuff. You know the people you lived with before? Yeah, just forget about them. That part of your life might as well not even exist. Besides, if you tell anyone who you really are, they won't exist." He grabbed me around the neck and pushed me against the wall. My airway wasn't completely restricted, but it was getting close. "I'll slowly and painfully kill you and then I will go to your old house and kill every single member of your family. Your life belongs to me now." He let go of me and I let out a sigh of relief. "Now take off all of your clothes…and stay that way."

I gulped. I was scared to object, but I didn't know what else to say besides, "But I thought you wanted me to put on these other clothes."

"I did, but since you decided to disobey me, I thought it best to…punish you."

I dropped the clothes and backed up against the wall, but he pulled me away from it and pushed me to the ground. He ripped all of my clothes off of me and didn't stop until I was completely naked. He started to take off his own clothes, but I hid my eyes from him. I was terrified for what was gonna happen next. Next thing I knew, he was on top of me. "No reason to keep your eyes closed, sweetheart." he told me. Then he raped me. I let out a few shrieks of pain, but he slapped me when I did that. There was nothing I could do except endure this awful pain and wait for it to end.

Once it was over, I was bleeding really badly. I was also crying my eyes out. "Please…" I begged. "Let me go to the bathroom. Just please let me go to the bathroom."

"Fine," he said in an aggravated tone of voice. He reached over and grabbed my change of clothes. "Put these on in there."

I nodded and stood up with them in my hand. As I started to walk away, he stopped me. He turned me around and stared at me. Just stared at me. It's like he was looking right through me. Just when I was about to ask what he was doing, he moved his hand up to my cheek and rubbed his first two fingers all the way down to my chin. It gave me major goose bumps. And I also shivered under his touch. "You know, sweetheart…you are so beautiful." He leaned in and kissed my cheek. I almost puked from how terrible he smelled. This was so…so…I couldn't even find the right words. Here I was, getting touched and kissed by some old nasty guy who just raped me. And I was standing there naked. I'd never felt this lonely or betrayed or embarrassed in all my life.

When he was done staring at me and touching me, he told me I could go to the bathroom now. I gulped and practically ran to the bathroom. I closed the door and locked it. I walked up to the mirror and looked at myself. I almost couldn't recognize my own reflection. If this was his evil way of torturing me, well…it was definitely working. I'd only been with him two days and I hated him so much, mainly for taking away my innocence.

It took me a good ten minutes to um…take care of my problem. Then I finally put my clothes on. I was so sore that even that took me awhile.

When I was ready, I came out of the bathroom and walked back in the living room. The man walked up to me and grabbed my shoulders. He turned me around and then started to pull on my hair. "Ow, what are you doing?" I exclaimed.

"Just shut up and stay still," he said. He pulled my hair into a tight ponytail. Then he turned me back around and grabbed a black wig from the coffee table. "Put it on."

I grabbed it and looked around. I spotted a mirror and I walked over to that. I stared at myself for a moment before putting on the wig. I had no idea I looked this rough. My eyes had a sunken look and my face was blotchy. I also had tears on my cheeks, but I quickly wiped those away.

Once the wig was on, the man walked up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. It took everything I had not to shrug him off. He reached into his back pocket and handed me a pair of sunglasses. "Put these on."

I grabbed them and put them on. Looking at my reflection, I almost looked like a complete different person, which was the point. "Say hello to Ally Larson."

**If that happens to be your name, it was pure coincidence!**

**But yeah, intense stuff, right? Update and tell me what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for the reviews! I know what you've been thinking; poor Tori. And that thought will continue for a while now. I wrote this story because I had the idea of Tori getting abducted and such, but really, as I was writing, I realized that I thought it would be a good story to bring awareness to these kinds of situations. It happens all the time. Girls are kidnapped and tortured in the worst ways possible. Have you guys heard of the Elizabeth Smart case? If you haven't, you should look it up! There was a movie based on the story and there are some situations in this story that are similar to that case. So I tried to make it as realistic as possible, as far as how Tori is reacting to everything.**

** I hope you actually took the time to read all that, because it explains everything, but if you didn't, well…then I guess you'll figure it out on your own!**

** Don't forget to review! :)**

** Disclaimer: I don't own "Superman" by Taylor Swift.**

Tori's POV

The next six months were without a doubt the worst six months anyone could ever possibly imagine. I was treated like a slave the majority of the time and I was raped every single night; it felt like I was in an abusive relationship just without the romance. Every single day was solid torture, mentally and physically. It was the same routine every day, so most days ran together. I still had no clue why he took me. I was basically like a prisoner.

I got to eat almost every day and when I say eat, I don't mean eating three good, healthy meals a day; I mean something small once a day, if that. If the man was in a bad mood, I got nothing. One time, I went three days without eating. If I really did something bad, he strapped me to the bed for a minimum of twenty-four hours. On some occasions while strapped to the bed, he would beat me. He beat me daily whether I was strapped to the bed or not, but this way I couldn't fight back. I tried not to cry at night, but it was no use. I cried myself to sleep almost every night. I missed my mom, my dad, Trina, all of my relatives, and all my friends. I always cried harder when I thought of Andre. On the nights that I was extra lonely, I wished that he could have been there holding me safely in his arms. One night, after being with the man for about two months, when I was feeling extremely lonely, I wrote a song about Andre titled "Superman." It was the first song I'd ever written completely on my own.

_Tall, dark, and superman_

_He puts papers in his briefcase and drives away_

_To save the world or go to work_

_It's the same thing to me_

_He's got his mother's eyes, his father's ambition_

_I wonder if he knows how much that I miss him_

_I hang on every word you say, yeah_

_You'll smile and say "How are you?"_

_And I'll say "Just fine,"_

_I always forget to tell you I love you, I'll love you forever_

_I watched superman fly away_

_You've got a busy day today_

_Go save the world_

_I'll be around_

_And I watched superman fly away_

_Come back, I'll be with you someday_

_I'll be right here on the ground_

_When you come back down_

_Tall, dark, and beautiful_

_He's complicated, he's irrational_

_But I hope someday he'll take me away and save the day_

_Yeah-yeah_

_Something in his deep brown eyes has me saying he's not all bad_

_Like his reputation and I can't hear one single word they say_

_And you'll leave, got places to be_

_And I'll be okay_

_I always forget to tell you I love you_

_I loved you from the very first day_

_I watched superman fly away_

_You've got a busy day today_

_Go save the world_

_I'll be around_

_And I watched superman fly away_

_Come back, I'll be with you someday_

_I'll be right here on the ground_

_When you come back down_

_And I watch you fly around the world_

_And I hope you don't save some other girl_

_Don't forget, don't forget about me_

_I'm far away, but I'll never let you go_

_I'm love struck and looking out the window_

_Don't forget, don't forget where I'll be_

_Right here wishing the flowers were from you_

_Wishing the card was from you, wishing the call was from you_

_Cause I've loved you from the very first day_

_I watched superman fly away_

_You've got a busy day today_

_Go save the world_

_I'll be around_

_Forever and ever_

_And I watched superman fly away_

_I swear, I'll be with you someday_

_I'll be right here on the ground_

_When you come back down_

_When you come back down_

The line that got to me the most was, "And I hope you don't save some other girl." I really hoped that he didn't forget about me and find someone else. Some days, I wanted to be found just so I could be with him.

The man let me shower once a week. My hair was so dirty and greasy after that week and I always shampooed my hair at least three times. The only problem was that I had a time limit for my showers: I couldn't have the water running for more than five minutes. If the water was still running after the five minutes, he'd come in the bathroom and turn the water off his self. Then he'd rape me right there in the bathroom. I finally got to where I kept better track of time.

As for my clothes, they got washed once a week. I always wore those jeans, red t-shirt, and tennis shoes. While my clothes would be washing, he'd make me sit in the living room with nothing on but my bra and underwear while he stared at me. It was just another way to torture me.

I knew people were looking for me. A week after I was first taken, while the man and I were just sitting in the living room, I heard people yelling outside. I quickly got up and looked out the window. I saw people in orange vests and it sounded like they were yelling out my name. I gritted my teeth and looked at the man. "They're looking for me." I said as strongly as possible, but my voice shook and I had tears in my eyes.

He looked up and glared at me. "Let them look. It's not like they'll find you."

I crossed my arms. "Unless I go out there and expose myself." I had random moments where my courage was way up, but I always regretted being that courageous after my "punishment."

At that, he ran up to me and grabbed me around the waist and threw me over his shoulder. I tried to fight him off, but he was too strong. He took me in the bedroom I slept in and tossed me on the bed; my head hit the headboard with a clunk. My head spun as he strapped my wrists and ankles to the bed. He spent the next fifteen minutes beating me.

I asked myself daily, is this really what my life has come to?


	5. Chapter 5

**Happy Valentine's Day guys! Or as I would like to call it, single awareness day! I feel like I'm gonna be forever alone…am I alone in that? I hope not! Haha**

**Anyway, here's the next chapter! (And again, there are a few things that happen in this chapter that are similar to the Elizabeth Smart case)**

Tori's POV

Two weeks after I was taken was the first time we went out in public and we were walking down the streets of Los Angeles. Along with the wig and sunglasses, I was wearing a black hoodie as well. I felt like an emo person with all the black I had on. It wasn't the nice part of LA, but it also wasn't the bad part of LA; you could say it was somewhere in between. No matter where you are in Los Angeles, it's gonna be crowded, which was how the streets in that neighborhood were.

I stopped dead in my tracks upon seeing a picture on the side of a building. It was a missing flyer of myself. In the picture, I'm smiling widely and look so happy. It looked like I didn't have a care in the world. At the time the picture was taken, two months before, I honestly didn't have a care in the world. If only I knew the struggles that I would soon face. The more I stared at it, the more tears welled up in my eyes.

The man pulled me out of my daydream; he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. "Remember, you belong to me now. Don't dwell on memories of the past. They no longer exist. Now come along."

I sighed shakily and we walked away.

The first thing we did was go into a small grocery store. There was a police officer slowly walking around and looking around. When we came in the store, he glanced at us. We kept on walking, but he managed to catch up with us. "Hey, you guys." he said as if he knew us.

"Hello," said the man as he put a hand on my shoulder. I was looking at the ground.

"Hello ma'am," I heard the police officer say.

I slowly looked up and slightly smiled. I didn't know what else to do. Even though I'd only been with the man for two weeks at the time, I was already traumatized out of my mind.

"Are you okay?" he asked me. I bit my lip and nodded. Oh, how badly I wanted to shake my head.

He kept staring at me and then finally said, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but…are you…Tori Vega?"

"_Come on, just tell him who you are!_" one part of my brain said.

"_You can't!_" said the other part of my brain. "_Don't forget that this man will kill you and your family if you tell this police officer yes!_" I always had an internal argument with myself. It was my subconscious mind and my traumatized self that fought with each other.

Somehow, my traumatized self always won that fight.

I gulped and shook my head no. The man squeezed my shoulder and said, "No, this is my daughter Ally. And please don't talk to her. She's very shy and doesn't like to talk to people she doesn't know."

He slightly smiled and nodded. "Well…okay then. I'm sorry for bothering you two." He moved aside and let us walk ahead of him.

"Thank you," said the man and we walked off. He bought a few groceries and then we were checking out. Just as we were leaving the store, he grabbed a newspaper from the news stand and we left. We walked the two miles back to his house.

Just as I took off the wig and sunglasses, the man handed me the newspaper he had grabbed. I glanced at him confused and then looked down at the paper. My breath caught in my throat at what I saw. The front page had a picture of me, my parents, and Trina from a few months before. We look like a perfect, happy family. Above the picture were the words, "In search for missing teenager, Victoria 'Tori' Vega,"

"Tear it up." he said sharply.

I let out a sob and then tore it in half. I watched as my family got smaller and smaller the more times I ripped it. The more times I ripped it, the harder I cried. Once it was torn to shreds, I looked up at the man with teary yet angry eyes.

He smiled and grabbed it. "Good job," He threw it in the fireplace and then started a fire. I watched as the pieces of that newspaper burned up. Then he walked out of the room and came out moments later with the clothes I was wearing when he took me: my pajamas and Ugg boots. "You see this…just keep watching." I watched as he threw the clothes and boots in the fire. I closed my eyes, looked down, and just let the tears fall. "Everything about your previous life needs to be forgotten."

I let out a few silent sobs. "I want my mom and dad." I finally said.

"They no longer exist." he said bluntly. "I'm all you have."

I knew people were looking for me. The more we went out, the more missing flyers I saw of myself. Those were the hardest things for me. Most of the signs read things like, "If you know anything about Tori's whereabouts, please call us at" and it would give a number to call. I wanted so badly to call that number and say who I was.

That man had me brainwashed into thinking that I couldn't trust anyone except for him. I remember this one day perfectly. I had been missing for a while, but didn't know how long. Time went by fast, but at the same time, it went by super slow. We were walking down the streets of LA when two police officers stopped us. "Hello guys," said the lady cop. "Sir, could I talk to you for a minute alone?"

He squeezed my shoulder extra tightly. "My daughter stays with me."

The guy cop put his hand on my back and pulled me aside. "I'm sorry, sir, but this won't take long. She'll be fine." I let the cop take a few steps away from the man. "Hi there,"

I softly smiled. "Hi," I whispered.

"Can I have your name?" he asked.

"Ally Larson," I told him quickly.

He eyed me oddly. "Are you sure that's your name?"

"I think I know my own name." I snapped at him.

"Okay, I'm sorry." he told me. "It's just…you look a little like Tori Vega. Have you heard about her?" I gulped and shook my head. The two voices in my head were currently screaming at each other, giving me a headache. "She's the teenage girl that's been missing for the past two months." I mentally gasped. On the exterior, I didn't react in anyway. "Everyone has heard of her, especially people in the Los Angeles area."

"Well…I haven't." I told him. "I'm just…I guess I don't pay attention to the news around me."

The cop continued to drill me with questions and I shot back an answer as quickly as I could. After half an hour of questions and answers, the man got sick and tired of being asked questions by the lady cop, so he walked up to me, grabbed me by the arm, and said, "Okay, that's enough questions. Thanks for nothing." He pulled me away from both the cops. They both stood there a little confused.

We quickly went back to the house. As soon as we were inside, he turned to me and said, "What did you say to that cop?"

"Nothing," I said honestly. "I told him nothing."

He smiled. "Hmm, good job. You know what would have happened if you had told that cop who you are?" He hesitated and then said, "I would just have to kill you and everyone in your previous life, even your friends."

I gritted my teeth. "You better not lay a hand on any of my friends." When I said friends, I was referring to Andre, Beck, Robbie, Cat, and even Jade.

"And if you do as you're told, I won't." he said. "You see…it's a good thing that you listen to me. There are so many lives in your hands. I'm not kidding, one word to the cops about who you are…" He ran his finger across his neck. "And dead. Everyone…dead,"

I bit my lip and nodded. "Okay," I hated hearing those words more than anything.

…..

Three days later, during the late afternoon, while the man and I were just sitting in the living room, there was a knock on the door. It kind of startled both of us since no one ever visited his house.

The man panicked and told me to hide behind the door, in case it was someone in search of me. If he really wanted me to stay extra hidden, I could have just gone to the room I stayed in, but really, I don't know why I was complaining. If I hid behind the front door like he wanted me to, I would be literally feet away from the person at the door. So I stood there against the wall and the man opened the door as I stared at the back of the door, staying extra quiet.

"Hi, can I help you?" asked the man. I was surprised by how different he suddenly sounded. He was trying to come off as nice when really, he was just a scary gruff looking man with a deep voice.

"Yeah, hi sir, I was just wondering, do you know anything about Tori Vega?"

My heart stopped. My breath caught in my throat. In that instant, I felt like I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and come out from behind the door. But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even breathe too loudly or I would be heard. So I stood there, my back to the wall and the door inches from my face, and I pulled my hands up to my face and covered my mouth to stop myself from crying.

The man who tortured me daily was talking to my uncle.

"No, I don't," said the man. "But I think I've heard about her. Isn't she the girl who went missing like…a few months ago?"

Oh, my God.

"Yeah," said my uncle. "Two months and four days ago actually. I'm her uncle and I would do anything to see her again."

I wanted to bawl my eyes out.

"I know how you feel, sir. I have a ten-year-old niece and I don't know what I would if I lost her." I wanted to punch him so badly. He was lying through his teeth.

"Yeah, it's been hard." he told the man. "Especially for her parents. They would give anything in the world, and I mean anything, for her to come home safely."

Can I crawl in a hole and die?

"That's terrible." said the man. "I'm…I'm so sorry, but I don't know where she is. And I haven't seen her anywhere."

My eyes were filling up with tears and it was literally a struggle not to start sobbing. I was shaking uncontrollably.

"Alright, well thank you for your time."

"No problem," said the man and he closed the door and locked it. He glanced at me. "Good job." He walked away and went off to his room.

As soon as his door was closed, I started bawling. I quickly went to the window and looked out. I saw my uncle walking away and I could tell by the way he was walking that he was upset. He probably thought that all hope was lost and that I would never be found. But here I was. He got very lucky and came to the exact house that I was in. But he didn't know that. He also didn't know that I was watching him at that exact moment, crying my eyes out.

"Please…come back." I said weakly. I don't know what I was trying to accomplish since I knew he couldn't hear me. "Uncle Mike…please…I'm in here." I was crying so hard that my voice was shaking and my vision was blurred. "Please…I'm right here. I want…no…I need to get out of here. It's terrible." I had to stop and collect myself. Well, attempt to. "It's only been…two and a half months, but…I can't…I can't take it anymore." I watched him until he was completely out of sight. That was when I really lost it. "No…please, come back!" I fell to the ground crying.

For the next two hours, I stayed in that exact spot, bawling my eyes out, and just kept repeating over and over again, "just please come back."

My life was a complete and utter disaster. I hated it.

**Okay guys, you have to remember...this man has Tori so traumatized and scared that she's afraid to say anything. I know things are horrible for Tori right now, but trust me when I say this; things do get better for her! It will just take some time…**

** Don't forget to review!**

** (By the way, to the person who was bashing Taylor Swift in my reviews, please don't do that. Taylor is one of my favorite singers ever, so I would appreciate it if you don't come to my story and bash her in the reviews. I don't appreciate reading that.)**


	6. Chapter 6

**So Andre may seem a little OOC (out of character) for this chapter, but he's just really upset, given the circumstances. And sorry if there are any misspellings or grammatical errors, I'm being forced to update now by my "two daughters" (lol don't ask). :P**

**Anyways, enjoy!**

Andre's POV

I missed Tori. There was nothing else to be said about the situation; I just missed her to the core of my being. I missed her smile, her beautiful cheekbones, her chocolate brown eyes, the cute little eyebrow wave she could do, and the way she adorably giggled when something was funny. What was worse than anything was the fact that instead of missing her as my best friend (which I did), I also missed her as my girlfriend. I don't care that we only dated for not even an hour, but I still loved her. I had grown to love her and then of course, as fate would have it, she was taken away. Every moment of every day, I imagined what she could be doing. I imagined what she could be going through and the first thing that always came to my mind was that she was with some crazy pedophile and just thinking about a man hurting her like that gave me chill bumps all over my body. I just wanted her to come home safely, but the odds didn't look that great. I would have given anything, and I mean anything, just to see her one more time.

I dreamed about her almost every single night. Some dreams were good while others weren't so good.

It was in the middle of summer, so I don't know why I was walking in the hallways of school. But I didn't give it much thought as I walked through the school and outside, over to the lunch table where Beck, Robbie (and Rex), Cat, and Jade were already sitting. I noticed that they were all looking down and had sad expressions on their faces. As I got closer, I realized that Cat was crying. I hurried over there and sat down next to Beck. "Hey guys. What's going on?"

The only person that looked at me was Beck and even Beck, who doesn't get emotional about hardly anything, had tears in his eyes. "Andre…haven't you heard?"

I looked at all of my friends, but they didn't look at me. "Heard what? What are you talking about?"

Beck sighed and pulled out his PearPad. He pressed a few buttons and then handed it to me without even looking at me. I looked at him odd for a second before looking down at the screen. It appeared to be a news report. There was a lady talking into a microphone and she was saying, "And it has been confirmed that the teenage girl found dead in a ditch just five miles away from her own home, is in fact Tori Vega."

My heart ripped into a million pieces. I could feel my chest getting tighter and tighter by the second. My eyes were welling up in tears and it got so bad that I could hardly see the screen. But there was one thing I saw on the screen before dropping the PearPad and running off: "Cause of death: strangulation and repeatedly stabbed."

I rose up in bed screaming. For a second, I just sat there hyperventilating. I had dreams like that all the time and I hated them so much. They sometimes made me not wanna go to sleep. I put my hand over my racing heart and it was still broken. That dream felt one hundred percent real, so when my heart broke into a million pieces in the dream, it really felt like it did in real life. Simply put, I hated it.

I climbed out of bed and grabbed a special album I'd made from under my bed. I opened it to the first page and stopped there. Tori's face filled the page. Her beautiful, smiling face. She looked so happy. I ran my hand across the page as my eyes welled up in tears. It didn't take long until tears were rolling down my cheeks and one landed on the page.

I wiped it away and then closed the album. I loved looking at Tori's face, but it was just too painful. I put it back under my bed and leaned over my bedside. I cried and prayed for an hour straight. I had never wanted Tori with me more than I did that night.

The next day, I got together with Beck, Robbie, Cat, and Jade and we continued to search. There was a search center not too far from Tori's home and people could go and search for her if they wanted to. For at least five hours every day, my friends and I went out and we searched our butts off just because we wanted to. Every day, I would hope to find something, but we never found anything.

After we'd been searching for close to two hours, I started walking next to Beck and began to talk to him. While searching, we normally didn't talk; we just searched. We were always in our own little worlds.

"Why aren't we finding anything?" I said out loud to Beck.

He shrugged. "She must not be anywhere near here."

"Yeah, obviously not," I said a little harsher than I intended.

Beck looked at me oddly. "Andre, I'm sorry, but you didn't have to say that so rudely."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know, but in case you forgot, Beck…I lost my best friend and girlfriend. So excuse me for not being happy."

"Andre, she was one of my best friends too." said Beck as calmly as possible. "I miss her too and I hope every day that she can come home safely."

For some reason, I didn't like that he was saying this. I mean, I knew they were really good friends, but he was acting like he liked her or something. "Beck, did you like her as more than a friend?"

He gulped and glanced at me quickly. "Honestly?"

"Yes, honestly,"

"Yes," he said bluntly. "I did."

My eyes widened. I thought he was gonna say no. "Dude, what the heck? You're dating Jade! Why would you like one girl when you're dating another one?"

Beck sighed in aggravation. "It's not like that, Andre. I never cheated on Jade and never will. I love her and I'm happy with her–"

"But you just said that you liked Tori!" I reminded him.

"I realized that I liked Tori when Jade and I were broken up." he explained. "I had been spending a lot of time with her and I began to realize what an amazing girl she was."

My eyes filled with tears. "Is. She is an amazing girl." I hated talking about Tori in the past tense. I didn't wanna think about her being dead, even though it was kind of impossible since I had dreams about her being dead all the time.

Beck softly smiled. "She is an amazing girl. And…I don't know. I really got to liking her." He hesitated for a moment. "Remember when she got the opportunity to sing for the Platinum Music Awards?"

"Yeah, of course I do." I said. "Why are you bringing that up?"

"You know how she was acting like a jerk and dressing all weird?" he asked and I nodded. "Well…that was all an act."

"Yeah, I know." I said. "She told me."

"Yeah, well, she didn't have to tell me." he said. "I just knew. I knew Tori and I knew that she wouldn't act like that unless someone made her. When I mentioned this to her, we ended up having a deep conversation. I told her that she should tell that Mason Thornesmith guy that she wasn't going to play his game anymore and that she should just be herself…cause she's awesome. We exchanged a few smiles and then leaned in to kiss."

"You guys kissed?" I exclaimed. "What? Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't she tell me? What?"

"But we didn't!" he exclaimed before I could get too worked up. "I swear, we were like an inch apart, but then her mom came in and we immediately pulled apart and I was gone within like ten seconds."

My heart had picked up speed, but then it calmed down. "So you guys didn't kiss?"

"No," He sighed. "Then…a few days later…after you and Robbie left to go see Jade rehearse at the music awards, Tori and I got to talking and…it got to be a quiet moment between us and…I really liked her, so…I leaned in to kiss her. But…she wouldn't let us, because of Jade."

I looked at him weird. "Why because of Jade?"

He sighed. "She said that she didn't want to kiss her friend's ex-boyfriend. I pointed out that Jade hasn't always been a good friend to her, but she didn't care. She still saw her and Jade as being sort of friends. So…she didn't want to because of Jade."

"So…if it hadn't been for Jade…you guys would have kissed?"

He hesitated for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah. I really think we would have."

I sighed shakily. "If you really liked her…why did you still end up going back out with Jade?"

"It…it's complicated." he said. "I don't really know. But what I do know is that I'm with Jade now and I love her. I'm happy that you and Tori got together. You two are perfect for each other."

I gulped and looked off into the forest. I saw other people in orange vest far off searching as well. It was so unreal at how many people had searched for her. Some of the big time celebrities even donated their time to help search for her. Of course, we were in LA where they lived, so it wasn't that unlikely. "Thanks." I shook my head. "I loved her so much for so long and…the day we decide to get together…she goes missing. Why did it have to happen?"

I asked that question to my friends all the time and they never had a good answer, because well…there wasn't really an answer. It just happened. It's just like everything else in this world; life isn't fair.

Beck and I stopped talking a few minutes later and we got into our own little worlds and just continued to search. I would occasionally call out Tori's name like everyone else, but it was pointless since everyone else was as well. If she was anywhere near us and heard us calling her name, she would respond. At least…I hoped she would.

At one point, Jade and I started walking next to each other. "So…I heard you and Beck's conversation." she said out of nowhere.

I looked at her quickly. "Are you serious?" She nodded. "And you're not mad at Beck?"

She shook her head. "Why should I be? We were broken up at the time." She sighed heavily. "Besides…that second time they almost kissed when Tori turned him down…I saw that."

My eyes widened. "You saw that? How?"

"Someone left their video chat on and I saw the whole conversation while I was backstage getting ready for my performance the next night." she explained. "Seeing that and…seeing how sweet Tori was about the whole situation; not wanting to kiss her friend's ex-boyfriend, because she said herself that she couldn't do that to me…I don't know, it just got me thinking and I realized that I couldn't take her spot in the Platinum Music Awards. So…I let her have the spot back and she was very grateful."

I smiled at her. "That was really nice of you, Jade. Did you ever tell Tori that you saw that?"

She shook her head. "No. It was just kind of forgotten."

I nodded and remained silent. I thought of all the things that I should have said and done while with Tori. Every day, I thought of something I wish she had known and I hate myself for not telling her sooner. Her being gone made me realize that I had been taking for granted everything in my life. Well, it came back and bit me in the butt. If Tori somehow miraculously was safely found, I would spend as much time with her as possible.

Since Tori and I were sorta still together, I didn't go out with other girls, but believe me, girls asked me out and flirted with me, but I turned them down. There was no way in heck that I was going to date some other girl when I'd already committed myself to the girl of my dreams. I know it seems selfish, but sometimes I wanted her to be found alive just so I could make sure she didn't forget about me. Her possibly forgetting about me was my worst fear.

**So I wrote this after I watched TGP and that resulted in all the conversations between Andre & Beck and Andre & Jade!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato!**

Tori's POV

I think it was a few weeks after the deal with my uncle that I decided to at least try to get away from this awful place. I had an internal debate for hours before I said screw it and jumped out of bed and ran out of my bedroom. It was in the middle of the night, so the man was asleep. That made it easier to get to the front door and open the door. I closed it and I took off running.

We were in a really small neighborhood, but all of our neighbors never came out of their house. I knew that if I just kept on running that I'd eventually get into the better part of LA where I could expose myself and finally get away from my own personal hell.

Just as I turned the corner to get to the better neighborhood, the man jumped out at me. It scared me so badly that I screamed. Where did he come from? "What in the world do you think you're doing?"

"Um, nothing…I was just–"

"Just trying to get away from me?" he exclaimed. "Don't you even start lying! Come on!" He grabbed my arm and he kept a grip on it until we got back to the house. I was terrified for what he probably had planned. I'd never done something this brave while with him.

When we got to the house, he threw me on the ground; I landed with a loud thud. He closed the door and locked it. He walked up to me, ripped off my clothes, and raped me. It didn't hurt near as badly as the first time he did it, but it still hurt. I think the main reason why it hurt was because it was against my will. My hatred for him was always at its strongest after he raped me. That's what traumatized me the most.

Afterwards, he made me put my clothes back on and just sit on the ground. He left to go in the kitchen and came back with a metal cable in his hands, the same kind of stuff he used to tie me to the bed. He got it in a tight grip around his hand and started to swat me with it. It was leaving marks behind with every hit; it was as if he was hitting me harder each time. Each time he hit me, I would let out a loud scream. When he was finally done, I had red lashes all over my body and I was bleeding.

I laid on the ground crying. "Can I please just go to my room?" I begged weakly. "Please, I'll be good."

"No, you had your chance!" he screamed and slapped my head. "You knew you were supposed to be good and you ruined it! You know what this means, right?"

I began to cry harder. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. Just please don't hurt me anymore. I'll do anything you want."

"Too late!" he screamed and grabbed me around the neck. He pushed me up against the wall and lifted me off the ground. I couldn't get one breath out; if I didn't get him to let go of me, I'd be dead in minutes.

I grabbed at his hands and tried to pull him away. "Please…" I gasped out. My voice was barely heard. "Let…go." This wasn't the first time he decided to choke me, but it had never hurt this badly before.

"Oh, I'll let go." he said. "Once you fall to the ground dead! And then when I'm done with you, I'll go find everyone from your previous life and put them through a painful death, including your pretty little friends!"

"No…" I gasped out. "Don't…touch…my family…or…my friends."

A second later, he let go and I dropped to the ground coughing and gasping for air. I'd been on the ground for ten seconds when he picked me up by my shoulders and held me back against the wall. "Tell me…what are your friends' names?"

My heart started pounding a million beats a minute. If he wanted to know my friends' names that meant he really was gonna go try to kill them. I sighed and said, "No…I won't tell you."

He pulled me away and banged me back against the wall. "Tell me, Miss Vega…if you value your life."

I let out a sob. "Torture me…choke me, kill me…do anything, but…don't kill my friends. Please…don't touch them."

He stared me for a moment and then sat me back on the ground. "You'd really die for your friends?"

"In a heartbeat," I told him. "All five of them," I mentally slapped myself when I said that last statement.

He raised his eyebrows. "All five of them, eh?" He thought for a moment. "Well, in that case…" He pushed me back against the wall. "Tell me their names. Tell me five names," He put his hands around my neck, but didn't squeeze. "If you object, I'll choke you to death."

I shook my head. "You'll never know."

"Well, you asked for it…" He lifted me off the ground by my neck and pressed me against the wall. I'd barely caught my breath from before, so this was worse. I wanted nothing more than for him to let go of me.

Just when I thought I was gonna faint, I gasped out, "Jade West,"

He looked at me odd and then slightly released his grip, but not completely. "What was that?"

"Jade West," I said again. "The name of…one of my friends."

He smiled slyly. "Four more names to go…"

I gulped. "Beck Oliver,"

His grip loosened just a little bit more. "Three to go…"

I hesitated. "Robbie Shapiro," I hated myself for revealing this to him.

He was only half holding onto my neck now. "Two more…"

I let out a sob. "Cat Valentine,"

He let out a loud laugh, which startled me. "That is the stupidest name I've ever heard!"

"Don't…" I said angrily. "Don't you dare…make fun of Cat." I sighed shakily. "Okay…that's all the names."

"Uh, I don't think so." His grip tightened around my neck. "I believe you've got one more."

"No, I don't," I said quickly. "That was five names."

"I believe it was only four." he said. "Let's see, there was Jade West, Beck Oliver, Robbie Shapiro, and Cat Valentine." Dang, he had a good memory. "Now I don't know if you have trouble counting, but that's just four. You owe me one more name."

"Andre, I love you." I said so quietly that even the man couldn't hear me. I gulped and said, "Andre Harris,"

He completely let go of me and I dropped to the ground. I looked up at him. "Alright, good job," he said and smiled. "Now go to bed."

I gulped and nodded. I finally got up and practically ran to my bedroom. I closed the door behind me and slid down the door. I hid my face in my hands and cried. If I hadn't tried to run away none of this would have happened. I made a vow right then and there that I would never try to get away from this man again. I'd rather live with him forever and have my friends and family be alive than be away from this torture, but my friends and family be dead.

Andre's voice echoed through my head. "_When I was a little boy, my grandma…before she lost her mind…she used to say to me, 'Andre…no matter how bad things get…you can always make it better by singing a song.'_"

I sighed heavily and started to sing a song that I wrote a few days before called "Skyscraper." I had to grab my piece of paper with the lyrics on it since I didn't have them memorized yet.

_Skies are crying_

_ I am watching, catching tear drops in my hands_

_ Only silence, as it's ending, like we never had a chance_

_ Do you have to make me feel like there's nothing left of me?_

_ You can take everything I have_

_ You can break everything I am_

_ Like I'm made of glass_

_Like I'm made of paper_

_ And go on and try to tear me down_

_ I will be rising from the ground like a skyscraper_

_ Like a skyscraper_

_ As the smoke clears_

_ I awaken and untangle you from me_

_ Would it make you feel better to watch me while I bleed?_

_ All my windows still are broken, but I'm standing on my feet_

_ You can take everything I have_

_ You can break everything I am_

_ Like I'm made of glass_

_Like I'm made of paper_

_ And go on and try to tear me down_

_ I will be rising from the ground like a skyscraper_

_ Like a skyscraper_

_ Go run, run, run, I'm gonna stay right here_

_Watch you disappear, yeah_

_ Go run, run, run, yeah it's a long way down_

_ But I am closer to the clouds up here_

_ You can take everything I have_

_ You can break everything I am_

_ Like I'm made of glass_

_Like I'm made of paper_

_ Oh whoa_

_ Go on and try to tear me down_

_ I will be rising from the ground like a skyscraper_

_ Like a skyscraper_

_ Like a skyscraper_

_ Like a skyscraper_

When I finished singing, I buried my head in my pillow and thought about my friends. I wanted so badly to see Jade, Beck, Robbie, Cat, and of course, Andre. I missed them so much. Remembering that I told that man their names made me cry. I hated myself for doing that.

When I eventually fell asleep, I had a nightmare.

I was walking down Andre's street and I had no idea what I was looking for. When I finally got to his house, I peered through the window. I screamed bloody murder at what I saw. The man had Andre on the ground and he was choking him. I pounded on the window and yelled for him to stop, but it was no use. He didn't hear me. I watched as Andre was murdered right in front of me.

I fell to the ground crying. "Andre, I'm so sorry…oh, Andre, I love you so much…you did not deserve to die. This is all my fault." I stayed there and cried until I felt someone put a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw the man. I jumped up and said, "I hate you so much! I can't believe you would kill Andre! He was like my other half and you just took him away! How could you torture me in that way? You should have killed me instead of him! He didn't deserve it!"

He simply smiled at me. "Oh, but he did, sweetheart. And so did everyone else." He grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. The first thing I saw was Beck, Robbie, Cat, and Jade lying on the ground…dead.

"No!" I screamed and fell to the ground bawling my eyes out.

I shot up in bed with a scream. It took me a minute to recover and realize that it was only a dream. This wasn't the first time I'd had a bad dream. In fact, I had a lot of them. A few stood out more than others, but I always woke up with the feeling of "Thank God that wasn't real."

I was walking through the streets of LA. Just when I thought we were about to arrive at a grocery store, we stopped at a very familiar school. I looked up at it and my breath caught in my throat. My knees got wobbly and I almost wanted to pass out. Hollywood Arts High School was staring at me in the face.

"Is it okay if I go inside the school?" I asked the man.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," he said and walked ahead of me. I looked at him weird, but then shook off the feeling and went in the school.

Walking through the doors to the main hallway almost felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. All the memories from sophomore and junior year hit me in the face. It looked as if I never left.

It was so weird, because it was during class, but yet there were so many people walking through the hallways. I pulled my sunglasses off and put them in my jacket pocket and looked around at all the people. I figured that they would recognize me since I didn't have my sunglasses on, but no one acted like they knew who I was. I figured that they just forget about me.

Just when I thought that no one would recognize me, Beck turned the corner. My heart started pounding extra hard and I smiled widely. I quickly walked up to him and said, "Hi, Beck,"

He looked at me and his eyes widened. "Oh, my God…Tori?"

I waved. "Hi,"

"What…what the…what are you doing here at school?" He was looking at me with a really weird expression.

I gave him an equally weird expression. "Beck…I've been missing for I don't know how long and you're asking what I'm doing here?"

"Well…it's just…I thought you were dead."

"Hmm," I said and crossed my arms. "It's good to see how much faith you had in me being found." Getting angry, I turned to walk away, but I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight in front of me. It was like my whole world came crashing down in that moment.

Andre was leaned against his locker while kissing some girl.

I gritted my teeth and ran up to them. I grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her away. "Get your hands off of my boyfriend!" I screamed at her.

She was about to yell something at me, but Andre quickly calmed her down and then pulled me aside. "Tori, what do you think you're doing?" he asked me angrily.

"I should be asking you that!" I screamed. "What are you doing making out with some girl while you're still dating me?"

"Dating you?" he snapped. "I was with you for not even a day and then you went missing. In a way, you left me. I think that gives me the right to find someone else. I can't spend all my time hoping you'll be found."

"But I'm found now!" I screamed. "Don't you see me standing in front of you?"

He crossed his arms. "Yeah, I do, but…you're a little late." He turned around, grabbed that girl around the waist, and started to make out with her again.

I rose up in bed screaming bloody murder. I looked around myself and to my relief, it was just a dream. I knew Andre and I knew he would never do that. He would never say something like that to me. I still spent the next hour in bed crying just imagining him with another girl, because there was that possibility that he had found someone else. That was one of my worst fears.

There were a few times, though, that I woke up thinking, "Why, God? Why couldn't that have been real?"

I was walking through a convenient store with the man. It was the same convenient store that we always went to. I'd probably been in there close to a million times. This was where the man always got the food he gave me, not like it was healthy or much to begin with, but it was better than nothing.

As we were walking down one of the very few aisles, I looked ahead of me and saw someone that I actually recognized. I say that because I hardly ever knew the people in that convenient store.

It was Andre!

I looked around myself and then started to take a few steps toward him. Suddenly, the man grabbed me and yanked me away. "What do you think you're doing?" he hissed in my ear.

I glanced at Andre and he quickly looked over at us. The look in his eyes told me that he didn't recognize me. I couldn't blame him since I was wearing my disguise. I gulped and said, "Nothing, I was just–"

"Don't lie," he said and smacked me hard across the head.

"Hey!" yelled Andre and ran over to us. Even though he didn't recognize me, he pulled me away from the man. "Sir, I don't mean to pry, but you are being way too rude to this girl. It's wrong to hit anyone, especially girls." He looked at me. "Are you okay?"

I was shaking all over. I cleared my throat and nodded.

"Come with me." snapped the man. "You're mine,"

I moaned and leaned into Andre. He put me behind him and took a step towards the man. "Don't you dare touch her." he said angrily. "I can tell by looking at her that you have not been treating her right. Just get out of here, okay? And if you try to fight me, I will start yelling and fighting back and the workers will come out and call the police. Either way, you're screwed."

He sighed angrily and then rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll just go find some other girl." He turned and stomped out of the store. I flinched at the sound of the door closing behind him.

Andre sighed and turned to me. I had tears streaming down my cheeks. "Hey, you're okay." He gave me a tight hug. I slowly put my arms around him. I loved being in his arms again. "It's alright, I've got you."

I sighed shakily and said, "Thank you, Andre."

He gasped and pulled away. He stared at me for a moment and then he slowly pulled the wig off of my head and dropped it to the ground. Then he took off my sunglasses. His mouth opened wide and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Oh, my God," he whispered. "Tori?"

"Hi, Andre." I said on the verge of tears. "Thank you…so much for saving me from that man."

He gulped and shook his head. "My God…Tori…I can't believe it's you right now." He slowly wrapped his arms around my waist.

He was leaning in to kiss me, but then, I opened my eyes and looked up. I was still living with the man.

I rose up and looked around the room. I got out of bed and looked out the window. It was dark since it was still very early in the morning; it was 4:45 am. It was a full moon and the longer I stared at it, the more I wanted to cry. Then I did cry. I collapsed to the ground and cried until light came through the window. I now wanted Andre more than ever before.

**Poor Tori :(**

**But don't you think that the song Skyscraper really fits Tori's situation? Because I think it does…now you know why the story is called Skyscraper! Don't forget to review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Tori's POV

I prayed every night before I went to bed. I used to pray every once in a while before I was kidnapped, but ever since I'd been kidnapped, I prayed all the time. I grew so much in my faith while with the man than I ever did before.

The prayers were never exactly the same and they were usually short and sweet, but some nights, when I was feeling especially lonely, they were a little longer. "Dear Lord…please help me through this. I just want to get away from this man and see my family and friends again. This man is hurting me so much and I don't think I can do it anymore. I know this can't last forever; it just can't. And I know that I'm just one person. I'm just one girl going through an awful situation, but…I know that you hear me and that you want me away from this man. Please, God, all I ask is that you get me away from him. He's hurt me in ways that I don't even understand. If this is what it's like for little boys and girls who have an abusive parent then I think they are the strongest people in the whole world. I can hardly handle what this man is doing to me. Please help them through their situation and get them away from the abuse. They don't deserve it; no child does.

"Also, God, I pray for my family. They must be so worried about me. Please give them a little faith in knowing that I will be found. I'm determined to get away from this man somehow. Help them know that not all hope is lost. And if you can, give them some kind of sign in knowing that I will eventually be found. Also…please be there for my friends. And I mean all of my friends. Jade…Beck…Cat…Robbie. Keep them safe and keep that man away from them. And…please…be there for Andre. Andre is more than my friend. I don't even feel it right to call him my boyfriend, because he's so much more than that. Sure, maybe I was only with him for a day, but it feels like I'm still with him. I just hope that you give him comfort and some peace. I so badly want to tell him how much I love him. I guess you never really know how much someone means to you until you can't see them anymore. I would give anything to see Andre, my friends, and my family. In your son's name I pray, amen." I'd usually start crying in the middle of the prayer and by the time I was finished, I'd be bawling.

One evening in mid-to-late October, I woke up from a random two-hour nap. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 7:32. I gasped and jumped out of bed. I always ate at 7:00 and if I was late to the kitchen, I wouldn't get anything. Even though I was thirty minutes late, I thought I might as well go see if the man would give me some food. My stomach felt like it had a hole in it.

I walked swiftly out of the room and headed to the living room. The man was sitting on the couch drinking from what looked like a beer bottle. Out of all the times with him, this was the first time seeing him drink, but I knew he drank a lot. I saw constant beer bottles around the house and he smelled like alcohol and beer too.

I gulped and said, "Um…is it okay if I get some supper? I haven't eaten since yesterday."

He laughed in a way that I'd never heard him laugh before. He was definitely drunk. "No, you don't get supper." he slurred out. "Now go back to your room….go to sleep."

"Uh…well…I haven't eaten since yesterday." I told him again. "And I'm hungry. My stomach feels like it has a hole in it. Why can't I just have some food?"

"Because I said so," he slurred. "Now go. You're wasting my life."

"Then you shouldn't have kidnapped me." I mumbled and turned around to walk back to my room. I took a few steps forward before turning back to him and saying, "Just so you know…you're going to prison when you get caught. You can rot in hell for all I care."

I turned to walk away, but I only got a few steps away when I heard a loud smash. I quickly turned around and saw that he'd smashed his beer bottle on the side of a table, but he was holding the top half of his broken bottle. There was glass and beer everywhere. He smiled slyly. "Come here,"

My heart picked up speed. "No," I turned around and tried to run to my room.

The next thing I know, I feel something insanely sharp jam into the back of my right calf. I screamed in pain and fell to the ground. I looked at my leg and saw that the man had thrown his broken beer bottle at me and it happened to land directly in my calf. It was jammed in pretty deep. It was throbbing so badly and getting more and more painful with each passing second.

He laughed. "Funny," He walked past me. "So funny," He went to his own room and closed the door behind him.

I started crying after that. I tried to reach back and pull the bottle out of my leg, but with just barely touching it, I screamed out in more pain. I had no idea how I would get this thing out without making me scream bloody murder from the intense pain.

I managed to crawl away and go to the bathroom. I looked at the bottle in my leg and wanted to cry even more. I was bleeding really badly and I knew that if I took the bottle out that it would hurt even more and bleed even worse, but I couldn't just keep the bottle in my leg. I had my jeans on, so the bottle was stuck through the denim as well as my leg.

I took a deep breath and grabbed a rag from the counter. I rolled it up and put it in my mouth. I reached behind me and put my hand on the bottle. I moaned from the immediate pain. "Come on, Tori." I thought to myself. "Toughen up,"

I closed my eyes to brace myself. I got a good grip on the bottle and pulled on it as hard as I could. My blood curdling scream was muffled as I pulled the bottle out of my leg.

I cried as I took the rag out of my mouth and raised my pant leg up. I was bleeding worse than before. I grabbed the rag that had been in my mouth and held it to the wound. It hurt just touching it. I knew that the only thing that would help it would be to go to the hospital, but there was no way the man would allow that to happen. I knew I was all on my own here.

The next week was like torture. I bled badly from the wound daily, but the man had a bunch of cloths that he lent to me. I'd wrap those around my leg to try and control the bleeding.

I also tried to keep the wound cleaned, but that didn't stop it from getting infected. For three days solid, I had a fever and would wake up in the night in a cold sweat. My wound looked disgusting, but I tried to keep it covered to prevent any more germs from getting inside of it.

After two weeks, my wound had finally scabbed over and a few more weeks later, it was a scar. And it wasn't just a scar on the surface; it was a deep, imbedded jagged scar. I think some muscles were scarred, because even after the wound had healed up, whenever I'd run, pain would shoot through my leg.

I was beginning to think that I really would spend the rest of my life with this man. I hated it, but I told myself to get over it. I tried not to think about my family and friends, because the more I thought of them, the more I wanted to break apart. That's the only reason I cried at this point; I missed them all so much. I didn't like the pain the man was giving me, but I somehow got used to it and it just became my daily life. What I would give to just see them one more time and I don't mean in a dream. I mean in real life. It would be a dream come true.

**I know that I've been so mean to Tori, but good news…it will all come to an end very, very soon! Keep reading to see what happens!**

**Don't forget to review! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry if Jade seems a little OOC for this chapter…since nothing really bad ever happens on the show, there's no way to know how she would really react if something bad like this happens. So this is how I think she'd react.**

Jade's POV

"Gahh, I'm so bored." I grumbled and threw my phone next to me.

Beck sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Jade, we live in LA and it's Friday night. Plus, you're with me." He reached over and tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear. "How could you be bored with me?"

"Oh, come on." I said and glared at him. "I love you, Beck, I really do, but people annoy me."

"Aww, even me?" he asked jokingly.

"Yes, even you,"

"Ouch," he said, but then pulled me in his lap. He ran his hands over my cheeks and pushed my hair out of my face. He gave me a long, full kiss. When we finally pulled apart, he said, "Do I still annoy you?"

I rolled my eyes at this boy. "Just shut up and kiss me again."

Twenty minutes later, we were in my car and I was driving us around. We had a small little make out session while in his RV, but after awhile, we decided we wanted to get out and drive and see what we could get ourselves into.

"So where do you wanna go?" I asked.

"Well, we are in LA, so I'm sure there are a bunch of parties going on right now."

"We are not going to any kind of parties." I told him sharply. "With it being Friday night, over half of the parties most likely include drinking and smoking and I'm not getting myself stuck in that situation. It could ruin both of our chances to get a good break in Hollywood."

"Good point," he said. "But, come on, babe, you know me…I wouldn't wanna get in that situation either. I just meant a fun party without any of that stuff."

After a moment of silence and of driving around, I thought of a place to go to. Without telling Beck where we were going, I drove to our destination.

When we drove up to it, Beck looked at it in shock. "Jade, what in the heck are we doing here?" It was the search center people went to if they wanted to search for Tori. It was November 30 and had been six months since she went missing. No one had a clue as to what happened to her.

"Got any better ideas?" I asked with a shrug and jumped out of the car. Beck followed suit and jumped out as well.

Walking around the search center made me depressed. "Remember when she first went missing?" I started off. It was just easier to not say her name out loud anymore. "This place was crawling with people. Now look at it. All it is now is a deserted area with random tables, chairs, and a bunch of trash. It makes me so mad to know that people have given up hope."

Beck nodded. "I know, me too."

"It's just…if I could find the person that took her away from her family, I would strangle them." I said angrily. "And if it's some nasty old man that is raping her…" Beck flinched. Since Tori was one of Beck's closest friends that was a girl, he didn't like the thought of some old man hurting her like that. "I swear, I will kill him."

"Jade, we don't even know what happened to her." he said. "She…she might have just ran away."

"Beck, be realistic," I said. "She wouldn't run away. Besides, the majority of the time that teenage girls run away is to be with their boyfriend and we know that's not the case here." I sighed heavily. "Her boyfriend doesn't even know what happened to her."

He slowly shook his head. "I just don't get it. I mean, her dad's a cop. Don't you think that if a man really came in to kidnap her, she would have used that as a threat? The words 'My dad is a cop' could be really threatening."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure if that were the case, he would have some threatening words of his own." I said. "Words that would most likely scare her half to death,"

"I know, but–" We were cut off by a crumpled piece of paper that blew up to us. It landed in between us.

I reached down and picked up the piece of paper. I unfolded it and saw that it was one of the hundreds of missing flyers of Tori with a headshot picture of Tori smiling in the direct center. It was a recent one since the reward money on it was now up to one hundred thousand dollars. The last I knew of, it was only at eighty thousand.

I sighed heavily. "I hate these missing flyers."

Beck closed the space between us and wrapped his arm around my waist. I rested my head on his shoulder while still looking at the flyer. "Me too," he whispered.

I dropped the paper as my eyes filled up with tears. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but…I miss Tori. I wish I could see her."

"But I thought she wasn't your friend." said Beck jokingly.

"Beck, I'm serious." I said shakily. "Sure, maybe I outright said many times that she wasn't my friend, but it was all a lie. To be honest, she was one of the best friends I've ever had. She helped me out with so many things and I never thanked her for any of those times."

Beck sighed. "I know, it's okay." He pulled me in a tight hug.

I wrapped my arms around him and cried.

…

Two days later, on Sunday, my mom made me go to the store. I really hated coming to the store. I hated all the people and all the traffic on the way to the store. Mostly, I just hated people. Everyone was so annoying. The only reason I was at the store was to get a few things for my mom. She knows how much I hate going to the store and that's probably the very reason she asked me to go to the store for her.

The first thing I did was go down the cereal aisle. Cereal was the first thing on the list, but the problem was that she just wrote down cereal. I had no idea what kind she liked. Now do you know why I hated people?

As I stood there and tried to figure out what kind she liked, a girl walked up next to me. I glanced at her and scrunched up my nose. By the looks of her, it seemed like she should have been looking at the steaks and not the cereal. She was way too thin. I was also confused by her clothes. She was wearing old tennis shoes, jeans, a black hoodie, and a black wig; she was also wearing sunglasses. I rolled my eyes and turned away. "You know were inside, right?" I said sharply. "There's no need for sunglasses inside."

She quickly looked at me and gasped. I turned and looked at her. She was staring at me and I couldn't figure out why. "Do you have a staring problem? Stop looking at me."

She visibly gulped and looked away.

"Ally!" We both looked off to the right and saw a creepy looking guy standing there. "Come on, we gotta go." he called out.

The girl nodded. "Coming," she said.

I had a box of cereal in my hand, but when I heard her voice, my eyes widened and I dropped the box. Her voice…oh, my gosh, where have I heard that voice before? In that split second, it was driving me crazy! I knew I'd heard that voice somewhere before, but…where?

The girl walked around me and headed to that guy. I vaguely heard that guy ask her, "What did you say to her?"

The girl shook her head. "Nothing," I heard her say.

In that instance, I recognized the voice. With my hands shaking, I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and immediately called the police. They were still in the middle of their greeting when I said, "Hi, this is Jade West and I'm calling to say that I've found Tori Vega."

…..

Without the police seeing me, I looked down the aisle they were on. They were talking to Tori, but it didn't seem like she was admitting to who she was. She was telling them lies about who she really was.

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and called Beck. "Hey babe," he said when he answered. "What are you doing?"

I hesitated for a moment as I continued to look at Tori. I was looking at her backside, but I could still tell it was her. I couldn't believe she was standing right there. I walked towards another aisle while saying, "I'm at the store right now."

"Uh…okay and?" said Beck confused.

"Someone…someone is here."

"Well…yeah," he said as if it was obvious. "People go to the store, Jade."

"It's not just anyone, Beck, it's Tori." I said quietly. "She's here in the store."

"What?" he practically screamed. "Are you kidding me?"

"Yes, Beck, I'm kidding." I told him sarcastically. "I called you just to play a horrible prank on you."

"Not funny, Jade," he said. "So you're sure it's really her?"

"Yes, I'm positive." I said. "I didn't know it at first, but when I heard her voice, I was sure that it was her."

"Wait, you talked to her?"

"Well, not exactly…" I explained to him about my little encounter with her. He listened carefully the whole time without interrupting.

Once I finished explaining, Beck said, "So what's she doing right now?"

I walked back to the aisle and looked down it. "She's talking to a cop right now." I looked at the man ten feet away from her and gritted my teeth. "The man that took her is being questioned right now."

"You're sure he took her?" he asked me.

I walked away from the aisle. "Either that or she ran away with him, but I'm pretty sure he kidnapped her."

"Gosh, I hate that man! I'm gonna kill him." said Beck angrily. "I will come down to the store right now and rip him to shreds."

"That's very sweet of you, Beck, but that won't be necessary." I told him. "He's still being questioned right now and I'm sure he'll get what he deserves. It's obvious he'll go to prison for the rest of his life. And don't come down here. I'm about to leave anyway. The questioning has already lasted twenty minutes and my mom is probably getting agitated. She sent me to the store to buy some stuff."

"Okay," he said. "Well, just call me later if you know anything else."

"Alright," I said. "Bye, I love you."

"I love you, too." he said. "Bye,"

We both hung up.

I took one last look at Tori and then left the store. All I could think while driving home was, "Oh, my gosh…I just saw Tori Vega" and also "Andre is going to be so happy!"

**Who's happy? :)**


	10. Chapter 10

Tori's POV

After being at the store for twenty minutes, three cops (two guys and one lady) walked up to me and the man. They all smiled at us. "Hello," said one of the guys. "How are you both today?"

"We're fine," said the man and put his hand on my shoulder. "May we help you?"

"We'd like to ask you two a few questions…privately." he said. "Is that okay?"

"Uh…" he said nervously and tightened his grip on my shoulder. It took everything I had to get out of his grip.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine." said the cop and he pulled me aside. The other two cops pulled the man aside. Once we were out of hearing distance, he started talking to me. "Hello, ma'am,"

I slightly smiled and crossed my arms. "Hi,"

"Do you mind telling me your full name?" As he asked this, he pulled out a notepad and pen.

"Ally Larson," I said quickly.

"How old are you?"

I gulped. "Twenty,"

"Twenty?" he asked. I nodded. "No offense, but…you look more like eighteen."

I sighed shakily. My internal voices were now fighting hardcore with each other. "Well…I'm not. I'm twenty."

"Okay," He wrote a few things down. "Do you live around here?"

"No," I said. I quickly thought of a place close by. "I'm from Anaheim, California."

"Which part of Anaheim?"

"Just…a part of it," I said quickly. I mentally slapped myself. That sounded so stupid, but I didn't know what else to say.

"Is that your dad?" he asked pointing to the man.

"Yes," I told him. I knew that what I was about to say was gonna kill me. "He's…he's a good dad."

"What's your dad's name?"

Crap. "Uh…" It took another few seconds to think of a name. "Danny Larson,"

"How old is he?"

I bit my lip. I hated all these questions. "Forty," I honestly had no idea how old he was. I didn't know a thing about him except for the fact that he kidnapped me.

"So…if he's forty and you're twenty…I'm guessing he was twenty when you were born?" What was the freaking point of that question?

I wanted to scream out to him to go away. "Uh…yeah, I guess so."

"Where's your mom?"

"Not here,"

He very slightly smiled. "Well, where is she?"

"She's dead." I said quickly.

"How did she die?"

I gulped. "She, um…well…it was a car accident…two years ago."

"Did she and your dad get along well?"

"Yeah, they get along fine." I said.

"But I thought you said your mom was dead…" he said slowly.

"She is," I told him. "I meant that they used to get along fine."

The next hour was torture. The police officer continued to drill me with question after question. Each question went along with the one before, so they were all related in some way. By the time the question and answers were finished, I had given him enough information about my fake made-up life that he could have written a biography about me. The thing was that none of it was true. Every word that came out of my mouth was a lie.

"So I've just got a few more questions," he said and put his notepad in his back pocket. He'd been scribbling on it for the past hour. "Why is it that with every question I asked you had to think about it?"

I shrugged. "Slow reflexes, I guess,"

He smiled and shook his head. "I don't think so."

"What do you mean?" I asked shakily.

"I don't think anything you just told me is true." he said. "I have a very big suspicion that your name is actually Tori Vega and not Ally Larson."

My heart started pounding extra hard. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, for one thing…you look a lot like Tori Vega." he told me.

"She has brown hair though." I said quickly.

He smiled. I think he knew I was wearing a wig. "And she also has high cheekbones…which are exactly what you have."

"It's not that rare to have high cheekbones." I said.

"No, but…it's a very interesting quality." he said. He cleared his throat and turned to make sure the two other cops and the man weren't listening to us and they weren't. He turned back to me. "What are you so afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid." I said. This was my one millionth lie of the day.

"I can see you shaking." he said softly.

I sighed heavily. I had the strongest urge to cry. "I'm…I'm just cold."

"Mhmm," he said, not convinced. "You know you can tell me anything, right? I've known your real dad for a long time."

"My dad's over there." I said quickly. I only knew a few of the cops my dad worked with. There were so many that it was hard to know every single one of them. But I didn't doubt that he really did know my dad.

"No, he's not." he said gently. "That's not your dad, is it?"

I bit my lip. "I just…can you please go away? I'm sorry, but…I don't…it's just…"

He stopped my stuttering by holding up his hand. "Listen…Tori," I stiffened. "I know how scared you must be right now. I just want you to know that I can help you. I can get you away from that man over there, but I can't do that unless you tell me that you're Tori Vega. Don't you wanna go home?"

"I want you to go away." I said.

He sighed. "You're just not gonna crack, are you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Tell me this, Tori…" I gulped. "Are you afraid to tell me that that's your real name? Do you think that that man over there will hurt you if you reveal your true identity to me?"

I sighed shakily. I had a massive headache…stupid voices in my head. "You don't know what he's capable of." I said quietly.

"That's true, but I also know that if you decide to tell me who you are, you'll get away from that man and be with your family real soon. And I also want you to know that you can always trust a police officer. We only want to help you." I bit my lip. "And you know…for the past six months…a lot of people have been out there looking for you…and missing you."

I came extremely close to bursting into tears right there. I didn't know what else to say besides, "You sure about that?"

"I'm positive." He pulled a piece of paper out of his inside shirt pocket. He unfolded it and showed it to me. It was a missing flyer of me with four different pictures on it. I'm smiling widely in all the pictures and in one of them, my mouth is wide open. I looked so happy. "I'm also positive that the girl in these pictures…is you. Am I right?"

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. I let out a soft sob and then reached up very slowly and put my hand on the side of my sunglasses. I hesitantly pulled them off of my face. I nodded and said, "You're right."

He smiled. "You're safe now, Tori, and believe me when I say that you did the right thing by telling me who you are. That man can't hurt you anymore."

I sighed heavily and turned around. The man was still getting drilled with questions. "Please…" I said as I turned back to the cop. "Don't…just don't…let him get away. He's capable of…so many things."

The cop gave me a sympathetic look. "I know. He won't be able to get away. Alright?"

I nodded and looked at the ground. "I want my mom and dad." I said shakily.

"I know," he said. "If you'll just come with me, we'll go to the police station and you'll get to see your family real soon…okay?"

I nodded and he led me away and out of the store. Just as we walked out, I turned and looked at the man. He was getting put in handcuffs. Seeing that image made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

**Who's ready to see the reunion with her dad? Her mom? Trina? The rest of her family?**

**Or with Andre? :)**


	11. Chapter 11

Tori's POV

The ride to the police station was really awkward. All I did was stare at the floor with my arms crossed. I still had my sunglasses in my hand. When we were stopped at a red light, he said, "You can take off that wig if you want."

I nodded and peeled the wig off. I threw it in the floor board and crossed my arms again. I looked down at my feet and cried silently. I cried all the way to the police station.

Once we arrived at the police station, I was taken to a private room with two other police officers. I sat on a couch in the room and pulled my knees up to my chest. The cop that I'd been with for the past hour and a half said, "I'll be back in as soon as I can." and he walked out.

"Where did he go?" I asked the other cops shakily.

"Just to take care of a few things." said one of the cops. "He'll be back in here in a little bit."

I nodded and then sighed shakily. "I have a question."

"Yeah?" he said.

I bit my lip. "What made him so sure that that was me in the store?"

"We got a call from a young lady telling us that she found you in that store." he told. "Since you went missing six months ago, we weren't sure that it was you, but she was positive that it was you. And…she was very assertive about it."

I blinked a few times. I breathed a little unsteadily and then said, "The girl that called…did she tell you her name?"

He nodded. "It was a girl by the name of Jade West. Do you know her?"

I let out a squeak. It never occurred to me that Jade could actually save my life by making a simple phone call. I knew she knew that it was me, but I never assumed she would call the police. I cleared my throat and said, "Yes,"

I don't know how long I sat there before I heard the door open. I continued to stare at the ground since I was deep in thought. However, I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard a very familiar voice. "Tori?"

I slowly looked up and I was facing my dad. I suddenly wanted to cry.

"David, is this your daughter?" asked one of the cops. He was the one that asked me all those questions.

His jaw dropped open. He stared at me for a moment in pure shock. He finally said, "Yes…that's her." He walked right up to me and got on his knees. I just continued to stare at him. "Oh, my baby," he said and rubbed his right hand on the side of my cheek. "Is it really you?"

My lips quivered and I nodded. "Yes Daddy," I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his neck. He engulfed me in a tight hug and stood up, still holding onto me.

There are no words for how that moment felt. All I know was that both my dad and I were crying our eyes out and we never wanted to let go of each other. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

A few moments later, I heard one of the cops say, "Would you like me to call the rest of your family?"

"Yes, please," said my dad still holding onto me. "Just tell them to get here as quickly as possible."

"Okay," he said and left the room.

It took another few moments before he finally set me on my feet. Then he put his hands on either side of my face and kissed my forehead. "Oh, Tori, I can't believe it's really you." he said.

"I know, but it really is me." I said shakily. "I love you so much, Daddy."

"Oh, I love you too, baby." he said and kissed my forehead again. He pulled me up into another hug and I held onto him as if my life depended on it. I've always loved my dad's hugs, but I've never loved them this much before. I was just so happy to see him.

While still hugging him, I saw the door open and my mom and Trina walked in. My mom saw my face and her jaw dropped. The longer I looked at her, the more I wanted to cry.

My dad heard noise behind him, so he put me down and turned around. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I ran over to my mom and we hugged each other tightly. She rubbed her hand over the back of my hair and said, "Oh, my baby…I love you so much, honey." She kissed my temple.

I was crying so hard that all I could manage to get out was, "I love you, Mom."

We hugged and cried for another minute or so before letting go. She set me on the ground and tucked hair behind my ear. "Oh, my gosh, Tori…I just can't believe it's you. I mean…you're here and…you're safe. This is a dream come true." She kissed my forehead.

"I know," I said. "I honestly feel like the luckiest girl in the world right now."

"Well, baby, you are." she said and gave me another hug.

Once we finally let go, my mom walked over to my dad and they pulled each other into a hug and cried themselves. The last six months were probably pure agony for them. I couldn't even begin to imagine how it felt for them.

I sighed and turned to Trina. She just stared at me with tears running down her face. She took a few small steps close to me and said, "Hi, baby sis…I missed you so much."

I stared at her for another moment and then I smiled and ran to her and we hugged extra tightly. I never thought those words would ever come out of Trina's mouth. I'd also never hugged her this tightly before.

After the amazing family reunion, my family and I were allowed to leave the police station. Except when we walked out, there were tons of people waiting and they all clapped and cheered. I looked at all the people in awe and then looked at Trina and asked, "Why are all these people here?"

"Tori, you're famous." she said. "The media has been talking about you nonstop for the past six months."

"No way!" I exclaimed.

"Yes way!" she said with a smile.

I wanted to go home, but because of all the news people out there, my parents had to stop for a quick interview. It felt so weird with cameras and microphones surrounding us. In a way it felt as if I was a celebrity. But not in the way anyone would want to be.

We were finally going home about thirty minutes later. Trina and my dad rode back in his car while my mom and I rode back in her car. While she drove, I leaned my head against her shoulder from the front seat. I eventually asked, "Was my kidnapping really that big of a deal?"

"It was a huge deal, Tori." she said. "There was a search center a mile from our house and people could go there any hours of the day, sign in, and they could go search for you. For at least a month after you were first taken, the search center was crowded with people. I bet thousands and thousands of people searched for you."

"Oh, my gosh, that's crazy." I whispered. "Why was finding me such a big deal? I mean, I know how you and Dad must have felt about it, but why did everyone else find it such a big deal?"

"It was such a mystery." she told me. "One night you were here and the next morning you were gone. It was like you vanished into thin air. No one had a clue where you were. Some people even assumed that you ran away."

"What?" I exclaimed. I suddenly got mad that people thought that way. "I'd never run away from home! Why did they think that?"

She shrugged. "It was just a theory that people had. You were a teenage girl who disappeared with no trace, so it wasn't too unlikely. I'm sure it's happened to other girls before."

I shook my head. "I can't believe people would actually think that I'd run away though."

"And if you think that's crazy, there were the people with the suspicion that me or your dad had something to do with it." he said. "There were so many theories that people had."

"Well, the only theory that's correct is that some man came in our house late at night, threatened me, and then took me away." I said. "That's all that happened. People should have understood that."

My mom shrugged. "No one knew."

When we were almost home, something that I hadn't thought of in a while occurred to me. I wasn't sure if my mom knew the answer to it, but I decided to ask anyway. "How did he get in the house?"

"You know the closed-in balcony upstairs that we never use?" she asked and I nodded. "Well…I don't know why or how, but one of the windows up there was open. He got in that way. The police figured it out a few hours after we discovered you went missing."

"Really? Wow, that's crazy. But…I don't get it. All of those windows are on the second floor. How did he get up there?"

"I…I don't know." answered my mom slowly. "The police aren't even positive. But that's the only way he could have gotten in. There were no other doors or windows that were open that night."

"And even after that, people still thought that I ran away?" I questioned and she nodded. "Wow…people are stupid."

At this point, we were pulling in the garage. My mom giggled and said, "We just didn't know what happened to you. But you know what? It doesn't matter anymore. You're here with us now and you're safe." She kissed the side of my head.

"Yeah," I said smiling and we got out of the car and headed inside. My dad and Trina were sitting on the couch and they stood up when we walked in. I didn't know what else to do besides look around the house. It had only been six months, but it felt like I hadn't been in this house in years.

After a few minutes of silence, my dad said, "Well, Tori…what would you like to do?"

I smiled and looked around at my family. I had never been so happy to see them. "For the past six months…I have wanted nothing more than to see my family. I should probably take a shower from how gross I am, but I don't wanna leave you guys." I wrapped my arms around my dad's waist since he was standing next to me. He put his arms around me. "I'm staying right here."

"Sounds perfect," said my dad and he kissed the top of my head.

Just then, the phone rang. "Phone!" I announced. "Can I get that?"

Everyone giggled. "If you want," said my dad.

"Sweet!" I said and ran to the kitchen and grabbed the phone. "Hello?"

I heard a slight gasp. "Tori? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," I said. "Hi Aunt Sonja,"

"Oh, my gosh, Tori, you have no idea how great it feels to hear your voice again!" she exclaimed. "I'm now ten minutes from your house." She sighed. "I have to see you."

"I can't wait to see you." I told her. "How did you know I'd been found?"

"The news," she said. "I kid you not; every news channel did a breaking news report just to announce that you'd been found. As soon as we saw it, we jumped in our car and now we're heading to your house." When she said we, she was referring to her, my uncle Mike (yes, the same one that came to the man's house that one day), and my two cousins Sophia and Kora. Sophia was thirteen and Kora was nine.

"Well, get here as quickly as you can, because I miss you guys like crazy!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, believe me, we're hurrying," she said. "It's taking everything I have not to speed."

I giggled. "Alright. I'll see you when you get here."

"Bye, Tori,"

"Bye," I said and hung up. I squealed in excitement and ran in the living room. I gave Trina a huge hug and, surprisingly, she didn't let go; if anything, she held on tighter.

When we pulled apart, my dad said, "I'm guessing that was Sonja on the phone?"

"Yep," I said. "She, Uncle Mike, Sophia, and Kora are coming right now."

"Awesome," he said. "I guess we just wait for them to get here."

While we waited for them to get there, we all just sat around on the couch. I sat in the middle of my mom and Trina and just looked at the ground, but I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I finally looked up at everyone and said, "Why are you all staring at me?"

"Well, maybe it's because we haven't seen you for six months!" said my mom and she grabbed me in a tight hug. "All we've gotten to see are pictures and missing flyers of you."

I sighed heavily and whispered, "I hated those missing flyers."

"You saw them?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. "The man and I…we would go walking around sometimes and I saw missing flyers of myself. That was the hardest thing to see. It also wasn't easy when a police officer asked me if I was Tori Vega and I shook my head no."

"Why would you do that?" exclaimed Trina and I looked up at her. "You probably could have gotten away from that guy much sooner if you'd said yes to that question!"

"Trina, enough," said my mom and she put her arm around me. "Tori is with us now and that's what's important."

Thanks, Mom.

She nodded and smiled an apology at me. I smiled back.

A few minutes later, the door opened and in walked my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Aunt Sonja started talking right off. "We would have knocked, but I didn't wanna have to wait for you guys to answer the door."

"Fine with us," said my dad. I jumped up and ran to her and we tightly hugged.

"I love you so much, my sweet niece." she whispered.

"I love you, too." I whispered.

Once we pulled out of the hug, I hugged my uncle tightly. When we pulled apart, he said, "It is so good to see you, Tor."

I smiled and then said, "Uh…Uncle Mike?"

"Yeah, what is it, cutie?"

I was going to tell him. I seriously intended on telling him. But I was afraid he would get mad at the fact that I didn't reveal myself to him all those months ago. Okay, maybe mad is the wrong word. Aggravated? Confused? Yeah, that would be the word. Why in a million years would I not come out of hiding when it was so very easy?

I have no clue. It will always be one of my biggest regrets.

I shook my head. "Nothing,"

Then I hugged both my cousins. Kora looked so different that I hardly recognized her. It's amazing how much people can change in just six months.

Spending time with my family, catching up, and talking about everything except my abduction made it one of the best times of my life. They eventually had to leave, but it was okay because other family showed up as soon as my aunt, uncle, and cousins left and they stayed for a while and we all caught up on life. There were at least fifteen people packed in our living room. When I would talk, all eyes were on me and it felt kind of weird. It was also weird how all my family looked at me as if I was just dream. They were probably just extremely shocked that I was still alive. It's just like my mom said: one night I was here and the next morning I was gone. It must have been awful for my family to go those six months without a clue as to where I was.

It wasn't until seven-thirty that my family left. When it was just me, my mom, my dad, and Trina in the house, I said, "Well, I've gone long enough without a shower. I really need to go take one." I was still wearing my tennis shoes, jeans, red shirt, and black hoodie. My hair was in a ponytail and it was very dirty. I hadn't showered in three days.

"What about eating?" asked my mom. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Oh, no, it's okay. I'm not hungry." I told her. "I ate something this morning."

"This morning?" she asked in shock. "And what did you have?"

"A piece of bread, two crackers, and a glass of water," All my family's eyes looked at me in shock. I glanced at each of their faces. "What?" I asked.

"Tori, that is not a nutritious meal." said my dad. "Speaking of which, how much have you been eating?"

"I would get a meal about like that once a day," I said. "Sometimes I'd go days without food, but generally, I'd get to eat a meal a day. I guess I got used to it."

"Well, baby, that's not healthy." said my dad. "You can go take a shower now if you want, but as soon as you come down, we're gonna get you some food. You need a good meal."

"Actually…" I started off and put my hand over my stomach. "I'd love to have a little something now. I guess my stomach is screwed up, because after I had that meal this morning, I was full. I'm not even that hungry right now."

"Your stomach shrank." said my mom. "The more you eat, the bigger it'll get." She stood up and walked in the kitchen and looked around. "So what would you like?"

"Uh…" I said and then walked in the kitchen where my mom was. "What do you have?"

She opened the fridge and looked inside of it. "We have left over chicken and pasta from yesterday. Would you like some of that?"

"It sounds great." I said.

"Well, okay then," she said and then started to pull it out and began to get it ready.

While she was fixing my supper, I sat at the table and rested my head on the table. I was actually exhausted. All those questions and answers from earlier had tired me out. It was so nerve racking answering all those questions. That cop probably asked me over a hundred questions. Plus, I hadn't had a nice deep sleep in a long time. I was looking forward to having a good night's sleep.

My dad came and sat next to me. He rubbed his hand on my back and said, "You feeling okay?"

"Mhmm," I said and set up. I rubbed my hands over my face. "I'm just tired. It's been a long day."

"Very true," he said. "But as far as health wise, do you feel okay?"

I thought about that for a moment and then nodded. "I feel okay. I never got sick the past six months, so I think I'm okay. It's probably not a bad idea to schedule a doctor's appointment just to be safe."

"Oh, I already got it done." said my mom. "I've got you an appointment for twelve o'clock tomorrow. It was the only time available, but even if there was a time available today, I wouldn't have taken it. You're ours today."

"Sweet," I said.

My mom got the food ready and she brought me a full plate. I smiled at her and then started to slowly eat it. My family just watched me eat, but I basically ignored them. I just ate my food.

After eating half of the chicken and a few bites of the pasta, I was stuffed. I pushed the plate away and said, "I'm done."

"Really?" asked my mom. "You barely ate."

"Believe me, I tried to eat more, but it was all I could take." I said and stood up. "I'm gonna go ahead and go take a shower. I'll be out as soon as I can." I turned to run up the stairs, but then stopped. "Wait, I'll need some clean clothes. Is all my stuff still in my room?"

"Yep, it's all there." said my mom. "We haven't touched a thing in there. The only things we've done is make up your bed and wash some of your clothes since they got a little dusty. Other than that, it's exactly the same."

I smiled widely. "You didn't pack any of it away?"

"Of course not," she said. "We never lost hope in finding you. Even when everyone else thought it was a lost cause, we didn't. I was determined to get you back."

My eyes filled up with tears at her words. I smiled and ran up to her and hugged her tightly. After hugging her, I hugged my dad and Trina just as tightly. "I love you guys so much."

"We love you, too, but go take a shower." said Trina. "You stink,"

"Trina!" said my parents at the same time.

I just laughed. I could tell Trina was just kidding. "It's fine. I'm sure I really do stink. I'll be out soon." I ran up the stairs and went to my room. When I walked in, I ran around the room and said hi to all my inanimate objects and furniture. I even plopped on my bed, which was the best feeling in the world. I felt like a little kid again.

After reminiscing in my bed for a minute or so, I got up and walked up to my closet. I stared at all of my clothes as if I'd never seen them before. Looking at what I had, I decided to grab some purple pajama pants and a long-sleeved white shirt. I would have grabbed my red shirt, but I was done with red for awhile.  
That was the color of the shirt I'd worn solid for the past six months.

Taking a shower felt amazing. I probably washed my hair like ten times and just stood under the hot, running water for fifteen minutes; I could literally see the dirt running off my body and going down the drain. Knowing that I didn't have a time limit was great. I was in the shower for at least thirty minutes.

Once I was out and dressed, I started to hear some people, besides my family, talking downstairs. Even though I was ready to come out of the bathroom, I didn't open the door just yet. I stood there and tried to figure out who was down there since I could already tell it wasn't just my family. Then suddenly, I recognized the person's voice.

I gasped and ran out of the bathroom. I ran to the stairs and stood at the top of them. "Andre?" I said immediately.

**Oh, aren't I evil?! Haha, well on the bright side, you know the very first thing you'll read next chapter is the reunion between Tori and Andre! And to make you even more excited…the next chapter is filled with cute Tandre :)**

**But didn't you love the reunion with her family? :') So sweet!**

**Don't forget to review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Aren't I evil to keep you guys waiting?! Haha! I was going to update tomorrow, but my friend is forcing me to update now…lol :P**

**Hope you enjoy this long chapter haha!**

…

Tori's POV

Andre, Beck, Robbie, Cat, and Jade all turned and looked at me. I could literally see the shock appear in their eyes, especially in Andre's. I guess my mom was in there talking to them, but as soon as I came into view, she smiled and walked out.

I ran down the stairs at the same time Andre ran towards the stairs. We caught up to each other a few feet from the stairs and I practically jumped into his arms. He wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace and held me against him. It was so overwhelming that I just burst into tears. Andre even started crying as well. At first, no words were spoken. We were just hugging and crying. Being back in his arms was one of the best feelings in the world.

"Oh, my God, Tori," he mumbled and kissed the top of my head several times. He tightened his grip around me if that was even possible. He was holding onto me as if his life depended on it. "I love you so much, baby." I cried harder when he said that. If he told me he loved me and called me baby, it meant that we were most likely still together and that he didn't find another girl to date.

"Andre…" I said, sobbing into his shoulder. "I…I thought that…you had forgotten about me."

"I could never forget about you in a million years. I thought about you every day." he whispered and pulled back just so he could kiss my forehead. Then he continued to embrace me. "I love you so much, Tori, like…I can't even explain it. I missed you so much."

I cried harder hearing those words. "I love you, too, Andre, and…I missed you more than you could ever know." I held onto him and cried a little bit longer before speaking again. I said, "I dreamed about you."

"What?" he said and he pulled me away so he could look in the eye. "What do you mean?"

"I really don't know why I tried to run away since the man told me that if I ever tried to or if I told people who I was that he'd kill me and my family and…my friends." I sighed heavily. "A few months back…I tried to run away, but…it didn't do any good. He caught me and…he took me back to his house. And…he…I don't know how to say it, but…he…" I bit my lip.

Andre nodded and rubbed his hand on the side of my cheek. "I know." he whispered. "You don't have to say it."

I sniffed and continued. "Well…after that…he pushed me against the wall and…tried to choke me to death." I shivered thinking about that. Andre squeezed my shoulder. "He told me that…after he killed me, he would go and kill my family, including…my friends." The memory was coming back to me and I didn't like it. Instead of telling the complete story, I shortened it. "Long story short…he wanted…you guys' names." I looked at the faces of all my friends. "At first…I wouldn't give it to him, but…he forced me to, so…I did. And then…he made me go back to my room. And that night…I dreamed that…he killed all of you." I looked down as tears fell down my cheeks. "I seriously thought he was gonna kill you guys. I was scared to death."

I heard Andre sigh. "Tori, look at me," Slowly, I looked up at him. "I would not have let that guy do a thing to me or any of us. And besides…even if he had come near me…and I knew that he was the man who took you and…hurt you like that…I'd rip him to pieces. I hate his guts."

"I love you so much, Andre." I would have kissed him, but since all our friends were around I restrained from doing that. I simply gave him another hug.

When we finally pulled apart, I stepped away from Andre and looked at all my other friends and smiled widely. Beck smiled and nodded and said, "Okay, now it's my turn. Get over here, girl." I giggled and wrapped my arms around his neck, giving him a huge hug. He hugged me back tightly. "Don't you ever scare us like that again!"

"I don't intend to." I said and then we came out of the hug.

Then Robbie and I hugged. When we pulled apart, I asked, "Hey where's Rex?"

"Oh, he's partying it up with Northridge girls." he said. "You know Rex…he loves his Northridge girls."

I laughed loudly. I never thought I'd be so happy to hear those words. "That's great, Robbie." I said.

Afterwards, I hugged Cat. She squealed really loudly in my ear. "I missed you so much, Tori!"

"I missed you, too, Cat," I said. I was suddenly happy that I'd defended Cat when that man made fun of her name. I chose not to tell her about that for fear of hearing, "What's that supposed to mean?"

When we pulled apart, she said, "I just can't believe it's you, Tori!"

"I know, Cat," I said. "I know,"

I hugged Cat one more time and then walked up to Jade. Her arms were crossed and she was looking around the room. I softly smiled and said, "I know it was you, Jade."

She shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about." Her voice was shaking and she looked as if she was trying really hard not to cry.

I smiled and looked at the ground. I cleared my throat and looked back up at her. "Jade…you saved my life. If you hadn't called the police when you saw that that was me in the store…I would be with that man right now and God knows what he'd be doing with me." I didn't say that to get sympathy; I said that because it was the truth. "You could have easily ignored me and gone about your business, but no…you picked up your phone and called the police. I don't know what else to say besides…thank you."

"You don't know it was me," she said in an argumentative tone. "There were a lot of people in the store. Someone else could have called."

"Funny story…when I got to the police station, I asked if the person who called told them who they were and they said yes. They told me it was Jade West." She quickly looked up at me. "Now I'm pretty sure that's your name."

"Don't flatter yourself," she said shakily. She was getting closer and closer to crying.

I slowly smiled. "Love me? Love me now? Yeah, you do, come on, give Tori a squeeze," I said jokingly and opened my arms. That was the exact same thing I said when I wanted Jade to hug me after I helped her get her play produced.

She sighed heavily and then we hugged. Jade and I had hugged a few times before this, but this hug was way different than all the others. Jade literally broke down crying and I even started to cry a little.

After Jade and I hugged, we all went and sat around the living room. We sat in pairs: Beck and Jade, Robbie and Cat, and me and Andre. Andre and I had our hands intertwined and it felt amazing to have him so close. I looked around the room at all my friends and said, "So what did I miss?"

"Nothing, really," said Andre. "Just day to day life. The only difference is that you weren't here. Oh, my gosh, if only you could have seen how crazy the search was for you."

Everyone else agreed that it was in fact craziness.

"How did you guys find out that I was missing?"

I looked around at all of them, but none of them responded. Finally Andre said, "Well…I found out first. Trina called me while I was on my way to school and asked if I knew where you could have been and I said no. She told me that her and your parents looked around the whole house, but found nothing. I told her to keep me updated and then we got off the phone.

"I got to school and I immediately told everyone about you being missing. No one said anything since it was so shocking. We stood there in silence for a while and then the bell rang, so we went to class. We all thought we'd be able to concentrate, but we couldn't. An hour into the day, we left and went to your house and it was absolutely insane there. There was yellow police tape everyone, cops and detectives were swarming your house, and there were probably ten cop cars.

"I talked to one of the detectives and asked if there's any way we could help and he said that there was a search center about a mile from your house and he said we could go there and see what we could do. So we got in the car and headed down to the search center and it was even crazier there. There were so many people there it was insane.

"We got in line to help search and once we got up to the front, the guy said that we had to be eighteen to search and we were all still seventeen at the time. Because of how badly we wanted to help, I looked him straight in the eye and said, 'We are eighteen.'

"We all looked at him with a serious expression and then he smiled a little and handed us orange vests while saying, 'Just be careful,' I think he knew we were lying, but he could see how badly we wanted to help.

"We searched off and on for the next four months. We would have kept searching, but as time went by, people stopped showing up at the search center, even the people in charge of searching. It's sad to say that so many people gave up."

I felt my heart drop. I can't believe people would give up hope. "But…why? Why didn't they just keep searching?"

Everyone shrugged. "People thought you were dead." said Beck. "The searching was pretty solid for the first four months, but it seemed to die down overnight."

"Honestly…did you guys think I would be found alive?" I asked. "Don't sugar coat it; I need the truth."

Andre sighed and said, "We wanted to believe that you'd be found alive, but…after months of searching and not finding a thing, it became highly unlikely that you'd be found at all. I hoped and prayed everyday for you to come home safely, but…I was beginning to lose hope. When I found out that you were found today…it was just the best feeling in the world; I can't even explain how happy I was. It was like a big weight had been released from my chest."

I smiled at him; it took everything I had not to lean in and kiss him right there. I knew that if we kissed right there that we'd get in a make out session and I didn't want to do that in front of all our friends. Instead, I said, "How much was the reward money?"

"One hundred thousand dollars," said Jade.

I laughed. "And you would know that, wouldn't you?"

She smiled and shook her head. "I just know from what the posters said. I'm supposed to get a call later this week, but you know…I don't even want the money. I'm really thinking about telling them to keep it."

Everyone in the room basically yelled at Jade when she said that, even me. After a few moments, she snapped, "One person at a time!"

"Me first!" I said. "Okay, Jade, take it from me…you deserve that money. I'm not even kidding, you didn't have to call the police and I didn't expect you to when I recognized it was you when I was behind that disguise. I didn't even think that someone had called the police; I just thought that there were police in the store already." I sighed. "There were three cops there. Two went and talked to the man while the other talked to me. He asked me questions for over an hour and all the information I gave him was fake. I didn't want him to know who I was, so…I tried to hide it best I could. It didn't do any good, because the cop knew all along that it was me.

"When I got to the police station after I finally revealed who I was, I asked what made that cop so sure that it was me. They said that a young lady had called and told them I'd been spotted. They thought it was a little unlikely since it had been six months since I went missing, but the person was very assertive. I asked if that person provided a name and they said it was Jade West."

"Dang it," she said jokingly. "Why did I tell them my name?"

Everyone laughed at that. "Well, they probably would have asked for your name anyway." I said. "But anyway…you're keeping that money. You completely deserve it."

"But I didn't call just to get the money." she argued. "I didn't even think about it."

I groaned and looked at Beck. "Help me out here,"

He smiled and looked at Jade. "Jade…you deserve that money." he said in a sweet voice. "You saved Tori's life. You don't even have to spend it all right away; you could put it in a savings account and use it for later. But you deserve it," He smiled at her. "Okay?"

She sighed and crossed her arms. "Okay," she said in a small voice. I said aww in my head. Beck and Jade were seriously perfect for each other. Beck is the only person I know who can get Jade to be sweet.

We all sat and chatted for a good thirty minutes, but they finally had to leave. They still had school tomorrow. When they mentioned school, it got me thinking about what I would do for school. I was covered for my junior year, but I'd already missed almost half of my senior year. I could always come back, but I'd be so behind in the work that it would be next to impossible to get caught up. I just shrugged it off for the night. I told myself I'd talk to my parents about it the next day.

Andre was the last person to walk out. Before he could step foot outside, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back inside. I closed the door and leaned my back against it. I crossed my arms and smiled flirtatiously at him. He said jokingly, "Oh, wow, I'm scared now."

I nodded. "Yeah, you should be." I stepped forward, snaked my arms around his neck, and kissed him. He immediately kissed me back and wrapped his arms around my waist. His hands were feeling up on my waist and back and it gave me chill bumps, but I loved it. It just added to the fireworks exploding in my stomach.

Just as the kiss deepened, we managed to go lay on the couch, him on top of me. I ran my fingers through his hair and kept him in place. He had one hand holding himself up and his other hand was on my cheek. We momentarily pulled away, but he just started to give a trail of kisses on my neck. "Hmm," I said softly. "I've waited so long for this moment."

"I have too, sweetheart." he said softly and then kissed my lips.

My eyes shot open and I pushed him away. "Stop," I said shakily.

He looked at me confused. "What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. We both pulled ourselves into sitting positions.

I let out a few shaky deep breaths. I blinked a few times and before I knew it, I was having a flashback.

_I dropped the clothes and backed up against the wall, but he pulled me away from it and pushed me to the ground._

Andre grabbed my shoulders and gently shook me. "Tori, what's wrong?"

_He ripped all of my clothes off of me and didn't stop until I was completely naked. He started to take off his own clothes, but I hid my eyes from him. I was terrified for what was gonna happen next._

"Baby, talk to me," Andre whispered and gently caressed my right cheek.

_Next thing I knew, he was on top of me. "No reason to keep your eyes closed, sweetheart," he told me. Then he raped me. I let out a few shrieks of pain, but he slapped me when I did that. There was nothing I could do except endure this awful pain and wait for it to end._

I let out a cry of pain and fell back against the couch. I turned on my side and began to cry my eyes out. I wasn't even thinking about that moment while kissing Andre, but when he called me "sweetheart," my mind instantly thought back to that awful moment. No telling what other things could provoke a flashback.

Andre moved closer to me and gently picked me up and rested me against his torso. I clutched his shirt and cried into his chest. He gently wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. "It's okay, I've got you." he whispered. "You're safe," It's like he knew why I was crying.

It took me a good ten minutes to recover. Even when I felt like I didn't need to cry anymore, I kept my head on Andre's chest. I felt so safe with his arms around me. I would have given anything for that moment while I was kidnapped. The moment was better than I could have ever imagined.

Because of how happy I was, I started to cry silently. I thought Andre didn't hear me until he said, "What's wrong, darling?" He soothed his head over my hair, which was still a little damp.

"I'm just so happy." I mumbled. "All while I was gone…I wanted you to be holding me in your arms and now you are. It's…it's just so overwhelming." I closed my eyes and listened for a moment. I heard his steady heartbeat. "I love having you so close."

He kissed the top of my head and whispered, "Well, I love holding you in my arms."

We laid there in silence for a few moments and then I said, "Thanks, Andre,"

"No problem, Tor." he told me. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, I'm good," I said. I set up and looked Andre in the eye. "Andre…I love you so much and you can call me any term of endearment you want, but…I just ask you to please not call me sweetheart. It's not your fault and I'm not mad at you, but…that man called me that all the time, usually before…well…yeah," He nodded. "It's just a name I'd rather not be called, but you can call me anything else."

"Okay," he said. "I'm really sorry about that. I'd never intentionally hurt you." He grabbed my hand and rubbed his thumb across the top of my hand. "I got scared there for a minute; you were really in a daze."

I nodded. "Yeah, I was having a flashback. It was so weird; I was here, but then I wasn't at the same time. It was almost like a dream, but I couldn't wake up from it. I heard you talking to me, but I couldn't respond."

"Well, I'm glad you're okay now." he said. "If you ever have another flashback, what should I do to help?"

"What you did just now was great." I said. "Just talking to me gently and letting me cry was the best thing you could have done. I just need to be able to let it out."

"Gotcha," he said and leaned forward. "So just to clarify…" he whispered while just a few inches from my lips. "Kissing you doesn't cause a flashback, does it?"

I smiled softly. "No way," I whispered and pressed my lips to his. I pushed him back on the couch and got on top of him. He ran his fingers through my hair while I tried to keep myself held up, but it was getting difficult.

We pulled apart and he smirked at me. "Having trouble staying up?"

"Yes," I said. "I don't wanna crush you."

He laughed and then tucked my hair behind my ears. "Yes, because you could really crush me." He quickly kissed me. "But if it makes you more comfortable, we could just lay side by side."

I nodded. "I like that," I got off of him and laid next to him. "Okay…where were we?"

"Right…about…here," He pressed his lips to mine and our little make out session continued for probably fifteen more minutes.

After our little make out session, we simply sat up and just started to talk. At one point, he randomly said, "Hey, Tor, do you remember when you were on the Platinum Music Awards?"

I smiled widely. That was one of the most magical nights of my life. "Of course I do. But I haven't thought about it in forever. Why do you bring it up?"

"You know how you were supposed to sing for it, then you got fired and Jade did it, but then she let you take her spot?"

"Uh…yeah?" I said this in question form. "Why?"

"Well…do you know the real reason why Jade let you take her spot at the last minute?"

I thought about that for a moment. I remembered back when that happened and I could not figure out why Jade was suddenly nice and gave me my spot back. I was definitely grateful she did that, but I still didn't know why. It was like one day she was mean and the next she was nice. I shook my head and said, "No. It's confused me for so long. She was mean to be one day, but then nice the next day. I didn't understand it."

He nodded. "Well, guess what? I know the exact reason."

My eyes widened. "Seriously? Then you've got to tell me!"

"It was the day before." he started off. "Jade was at the Boomerang Theater doing rehearsals and Cat was down there with her. You and Cat got on video chat and talked for a little bit. Remember? Me, Beck, and Robbie were at your house."

I nodded. "Yeah, I remember."

"But then when Cat said that we were all allowed to go down there, me and Robbie immediately left."

"Yeah, thanks for abandoning me." I said sarcastically.

He giggled. "But you were okay. You had Beck with you."

My heart started pounding remembering what happened once Andre and Robbie had left. I hadn't thought about that in so long. I gulped and said, "Uh…yeah, I guess."

"Anyway, while you and Beck were talking and…had your almost kiss…Jade saw that." he said. "The video chat was left on."

"Oh, my God!" I said and threw my hands to my head. "She saw that?"

He nodded. "Yep,"

"Oh, no," I said and groaned loudly. "I can't believe she saw that!"

"But she wasn't mad," he told me. "They were broken up at the time. And she just thought it was really nice of you to not kiss her friend's ex-boyfriend and how you said that you couldn't do that to a friend."

"Huh," I said, looking off into space thinking about it.

"And…I guess she felt like she had to pay you back," he said.

I nodded. "Yeah," I cleared my throat. "How did you find out all of this stuff?"

"Beck told me that you and him almost kissed twice and Jade overheard Beck telling me this," he said. "So she told me that she saw that second almost kiss. But she's not mad about it, trust me."

"Wow," I said. "That's…really crazy,"

"Yeah, it is," he said. Then he changed the subject and started talking about something else. I still couldn't believe that Jade saw me and Beck's almost kiss. I reminded myself to talk to Jade about that sometime.

A little bit later, Andre had to leave, but I walked him out to his car. When we reached his car, we hugged each other tightly. I kid you not; we stood there with our arms around each other for at least two minutes. Neither one of us wanted to let go.

When we finally did, Andre ran his fingers through my hair. He kept his hands in my hair with his thumbs caressing my edges of my cheekbones. I put my arms around him and I didn't wanna let go. "I don't want you to leave." I whispered.

"I know," he whispered and kissed my forehead. "I don't either. But I'll be seeing you tomorrow, right?"

"Of course," I said. "But I have a doctor's appointment at twelve."

"Okay," he said. "Will you be done by three?"

I giggled. "I would hope so."

"Okay, I'll be here after school tomorrow." He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. We kept our foreheads together. "I'm just scared to go to bed tonight. I'm afraid I'll wake up in the morning and all this will be a dream. It's just too good to be true."

His words almost made me cry. "I'm here, Andre." I said shakily. "And I'm not leaving you. I promise you, I'll be asleep in my bed when you wake up in the morning. I'll be safe."

He sighed. "Somehow that's not enough," You'd think that Andre was acting selfish by saying that, but I didn't think it sounded selfish at all. The agony I felt missing him was probably nothing compared to the agony of how much he missed me. While I was missing him, I knew he was alive. He probably thought I was dead. I couldn't even begin to imagine how that felt.

"Well…do you want me to come to your house and wake you up in the morning?"

"Oh, babe, I couldn't ask you to do that," he said. "I wake up at 6:45. You'd have to wake up at like 6:15 or 6:30 to get to my house by then."

I pulled my arms from around his back and put them around his neck. I leaned in and kissed him. When we pulled apart, I said, "I'll do anything I can to make you happy, babe."

"You know, I should be saying that to you." he said with a smile.

I smiled at him. "Well, what kind of relationship would this be if I didn't make you happy? It has to be mutual."

"Hmm, I agree," he said. "Okay, so…are you sure you wanna wake me up in the morning? I mean, I'd love if you would, but I can't ask you to get up that early."

"Andre…" I said and slowly kissed him. I could tell that the kiss took his breath away. "I love you so much, okay? I wanna do this for you."

"Well, okay, then." he said with a smile. "I better go so I can get to bed and be able to see your beautiful face in the morning."

I smiled, but then something occurred to me. "Uh…I just have a quick question…did you ever date another girl in the last six months?"

"What?" he asked shocked. "No, of course not. There was no way I'd be able to date another girl after getting in a relationship with you. Girls flirted with me and asked me out, but I turned all of them down. You were always the only girl for me."

"But…" I said shakily. "I could easily not be here right now. What if I hadn't gone to the store when I had? What if I hadn't stood next to some random girl when I did? What if that girl wasn't Jade? And what if Jade hadn't called the cops? I could easily not be here right now and still be with that man. I mean, while I was kidnapped, I hoped that you wouldn't find some other girl, but I couldn't ask you to wait around for me when I may or may not have come back."

"But you did, that's the thing." he said. "You and Jade were both at the right place at the right time."

I sighed heavily and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I have to stop thinking about the what-ifs and just be happy about what happened."

"Yeah," he said and kissed me. "Okay, that was my goodnight kiss to you. I've got to go home and get some sleep; it's already after ten and I have school tomorrow. But…when I wake up, I know I'll wake up to your gorgeous face."

I giggled. "Goodnight. I love you."

"I love you, too." he said and kissed my forehead. "I will see you in the morning."

I gave him another quick kiss. "Have a good night sleep." I smiled at him and then walked back to my door. I waved at Andre and he waved back to me. I couldn't wait for the next day when I'd get to wake Andre up.

When I got in the house, I locked the door behind me and went to my parents' bedroom. I knocked on their door. "Come in," said my dad.

I opened the door and walked in. "Hi Daddy,"

They both smiled at me. "Hi baby," he said. "Come here,"

I half-ran to their bed and climbed in between them. "I love this house so much!" I said.

"This house is so much better with you in it." said my mom. "We're so glad you're here with us."

"I know, me too." I said.

"Would you like to sleep in here tonight?" asked my dad. "After all of this…we wouldn't mind if you did."

"Oh, no, it's fine," I told them. "I need to sleep in my own bed and I promise you…I will be here when you wake up in the morning."

"Aww, Tori, you're gonna make us cry." said my mom and wiped at her eyes.

I smiled. "I love you guys." I gave each of them a hug and told them goodnight. Just before I walked out, I said, "Oh, by the way, I'm waking up at 6:15 in the morning. I'm gonna go to Andre's house and wake him up."

My parents looked at me in shock. "Uh…okay, why?" asked my mom. "Can't he wake up on his own?"

"Well, yeah, but I wanna wake him up." I said. "He still feels like it's a dream that I was found at all, just like so many other people, but him especially. I wanna do this for him."

"Well…okay, I guess," said my dad. "Do you want me to wake you up in the morning?"

"No, it's okay," I said. "I'll set my alarm clock."

"Okay, sweetie," he said. "Have a good night's sleep."

I smiled at them. "Night," I waved and then walked out of the room and closed the door behind me.

On my way to my room, I ran into Trina. "Did I hear you say something about waking up at 6:15 in the morning? Are you crazy?"

I laughed. "No, I'm going to Andre's house and I'm gonna wake him up at 6:45. And don't say I'm crazy because of it; I wanna do this for him. I love Andre."

She shook her head. "Wow, Andre better understand what an amazing girlfriend you are." She yawned. "Well…I'm going to bed. Good night, baby sis. You better be here in the morning." She said that half-jokingly, but also half-serious.

"I plan to be." I said and we hugged.

Afterwards, I headed to my room. I set my alarm to 6:15 and then crawled under the covers. Looking at the view around me, I nearly started crying. I hadn't been in this spot in six months. It was so overwhelming to me. It took me awhile to fall asleep that night from all my childhood memories flooding through my mind.


	13. Chapter 13

**Well, I'm exhausted and don't feel like proofreading, so if you see a grammatical error, please try to ignore it!**

** Enjoy!**

Tori's POV

My alarm clock went off the next morning at 6:15. For a moment, I forget where I was. I set up and looked around, my heart pounding hard in my chest. It then occurred to me the day before: December second, was the best day of my life. I had been released from my own personal hell.

The only thing that got me out of bed was knowing that I would be seeing Andre soon. I got out of bed and quickly put my flip-flops on. I pulled a hoodie out of my closet and put it on. I went to the bathroom and ran a brush through my hair. My mouth felt really dry, so I went ahead and brushed my teeth.

Once I was ready, I went downstairs and saw my parents in the living room drinking some coffee. "Good morning," I said with a smile coming down the stairs.

"Why, hello there, Tori." said my mom and she and my dad stood up. They walked over to me and each gave me a big hug. "I know you said you would be waking up this early, but I didn't think you would actually do it."

"I'll do anything for Andre." I said with a smile. "Where are the keys so I can drive to his house?"

My mom giggled and then walked over to the counter and grabbed the keys from the table. She tossed them to me. "Here you go. It's the car you and Trina shared. Trina has had it all this time, but it's back to being half-yours now."

"But what about when she goes back to college?" I asked.

"She's not in college." answered my mom. "She decided to take a year off."

"Oh okay," I said. "Well…I better get going. I'll be back later."

"Bye, honey," said my dad and I walked out the door and to the car Trina and I shared. I sat in it in silence for a moment. Every little thing made me emotional.

I finally got it started and drove to Andre's house. The clock in the car said 6:40 once I arrived to his house. I better hurry before Andre was late.

I jumped out of the car and ran up to Andre's front door. I quickly knocked on the door.

After a moment, the door opened and I saw Andre's mom. She smiled warmly at me. "Well, hi there, Tori," she said. "It's so good to see you."

I giggled. "Hi, Mrs. Harris," We gave each other a hug. I always loved Andre's mom. In fact, I loved his whole family. They were all really sweet, even his grandma. She was just a little nuts in the head.

When we came out of the hug, she said with a smile, "Andre told me you would be waking him up at around this time. You better get in there if you wanna get him up on time."

"Okay," I said with a giggle. She opened the door wider and let me in the house. I walked up the stairs and over to Andre's room and slowly opened the door. The room was dark, but I could still see Andre sound asleep in his bed. "Aww," I said with a smile and walked up to the side of his bed. I turned his bedside lamp on and sat down. "You look so cute." I whispered and rubbed his shoulder. "Hey, Andre, wake up," I shook him. I leaned down and kissed his neck. "Wake up, babe," If that didn't wake him up, I didn't know what would.

Just as I suspected, he started to wake up. He groaned and then yawned. He looked at me and I smiled widely at him. His eyes widened and he set up. "Oh, my God, Tori, you're here!"

I giggled. "Yeah, I told you I would be."

Suddenly, he let out a long sigh. "Oh, my gosh, for that split second, I forgot about yesterday and I thought you were just sitting here on my bed out of nowhere." He let out a huge sigh. "Oh, my gosh, yesterday felt like such a dream." He grabbed me in a tight embrace and held onto me. I wrapped my arms around him and held onto him tightly as well. "I love you so much."

I buried my head in his shoulder. "I love you, too." I tightened my grip on him.

After a moment of hugging, we finally pulled apart. "So…" he started off. "You actually woke up at 6:15 and came to my house to wake me up. I honestly didn't think you would do that."

I shrugged. "I only did it cause I love you."

He smiled. "Aw, thanks, baby." He grabbed onto my hand. "I'd kiss you right now, but I bet my breath stinks."

"Pshh, please," I said. "I went six months without kissing you. I'm not going another day without it." I leaned in and kissed him passionately. I honestly couldn't tell you if he had bad breath or not. All I cared about were his lips on mine.

We stayed there and made out for a couple minutes, but then I heard the door swing open. "Andre, you need to–whoa, I'm sorry,"

Andre and I quickly pulled away and looked at the door. "Mom!" exclaimed Andre. "Don't you knock?"

"Well, normally, but I usually don't come in here at seven in the morning to find you making out with your girlfriend." she said sarcastically.

He sighed. "What did you want?"

"Are you gonna get in the shower?"

"Yeah, I will in a little bit."

"Okay," She cleared her throat. "And…I'm sorry, guys,"

"It's fine, bye," said Andre quickly.

She quickly smiled and then walked out.

"Oh, my God, Andre," I said. "Your mom just walked in on us making out! That's so embarrassing!"

"Tori, trust me, it's fine," said Andre. "My mom doesn't care." He sighed. "Well…I need to get in the shower."

I nodded, a little disappointed. "Okay," I said quietly.

"But, hey, you don't have to leave." he said quickly. "You can wait in here while I take my shower and then when I leave for school, you can go back home. You can wait in here until I get out. No one will come in here."

"Uh…your mom just walked in on us making out." I reminded him.

"That was just because she knew I was in here; she knows I'll be in the shower. She won't come in, okay?" I nodded. "Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and go to the bathroom." He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss. Then he hopped off the bed and went to his closet. He pulled out some clothes and then turned to me. "I'll be out as soon as I can."

I smiled. "I'll be in here."

He grinned and then walked out of the room.

I sighed and looked around the room. I'd been in Andre's room before, but never as his girlfriend. I sat there for a good while and just looked around, but then I eventually decided to look around a little bit. I felt a little nosy, but I didn't care. I knew Andre wouldn't mind. At least, I hoped he wouldn't.

After looking in a few drawers and finding nothing interesting, in one of the drawers I opened, I found what looked like a photo album. The words "My Love" were written on the front in sharpie. I grabbed it and opened to the first page. My heart started thumping extra hard in my chest. It was a zoomed in headshot of me. My face filled up nearly the whole page. "What?" I whispered.

I started to cry as I flipped through the album. It was filled with pictures of me, missing flyers of me, and songs he'd written for me. They all talked about how much he missed me, how much he loved me, and how beautiful he thought I was. There were probably close to thirty songs in there.

I didn't recognize nearly any of the songs, but there were two that I did recognize. They were "Song to You" and "Countdown." I remember that he told me he wrote "Countdown" for one of his old girlfriends, Hope Quincy, but I wasn't so sure now.

A little bit later, Andre walked in his room. I looked up at him with tears streaming down my cheeks. "Hey, I'm out of the shower." He looked at me and his eyes widened in shock. "Oh, my God, Tori…what's wrong?"

I gulped and looked down at the album. I closed it and rubbed my hands on the cover, over the words "My Love." "This album, Andre…I can't believe you made it." I let out a sob. "And…I'm so sorry that I was snooping. It's just…well, I just…I don't know. I don't have any excuses. I'm just so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" he asked gently. He walked up to me and sat next to me. He put his arm around me and rubbed his hand on my back. "I was gonna show it to you anyway." He reached up with his other hand and wiped away a few of my tears. "But why are you crying?"

"It's just…this album is beautiful." I laid it next to me. "You must have worked so hard on this."

"But I didn't," he told me. "The only work I did was write those words on the cover. Everything after that was effortless. I found pictures of you and missing flyers of you and just put them in there. The songs were also effortless. My feelings were put out in those songs. It helped me not to fall apart daily."

"What do you mean fall apart?" I asked shakily.

He gently grabbed my face in his hands and whispered, "I missed you so much, baby." He leaned in and gave me a kiss. It only lasted a moment, but it was such a sweet kiss.

When we pulled apart, I said, "But…but those songs. They were…amazing." I paused. "And…the song 'Countdown…' I thought you wrote it for Hope. I mean, you even told her you wrote it for her."

He smiled. "Yeah, I did, but I also told her that I liked her to her face and we all know that was a lie."

I blinked a few times. "But…what about 'Song to You?' That was from…our sophomore year."

"Tori, I've loved you from the very first day."

I hadn't thought about my song "Superman" in a good while, but when Andre said that, I instantly thought back to it, which was why I started bawling when he said that.

"Oh, my God, Tori, why do you keep crying?" he asked worriedly. "I feel like I'm making you cry."

"No, Andre, you're not." I told him instantly. "It's just…I've loved you from the very first day. I've wanted to be your girlfriend ever since you came to my house and rehearsed for The Big Showcase with Trina. If it hadn't been for you, I never would have stayed at Hollywood Arts since you convinced me to stay after Jade was so rude to me. Heck, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gone there at all! It was you who convinced me to go up on that stage and perform 'Make it Shine.'" I shook my head. "I don't wanna sound cheesy or cliché, but…you're the best person I know."

He slowly smiled widely at me. "Aww," He pulled me into his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck. "That's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. And guess what?"

"Hmm?"

"You're the best person I know," he said.

"Aww," I said. "But wait…" I looked down at him. "I have a question."

"What's up?"

"If you've loved me from the very first day, why did you date so many girls?"

He shrugged. "Why did you date so many guys?"

I sighed. "Never mind,"

He giggled and pushed some of my hair back. "I think the main reason why we dated other people for so long is because we were afraid to admit our true feelings to each other, but mainly, I think it was because we didn't wanna get into a relationship and it not work out and then for us to never speak again. But…it all worked out. Look at us now."

I giggled. "Yeah…look at us now." I leaned down and gave Andre a kiss. When we pulled apart, I said, "Wow, Andre…I haven't even been back for twenty-four hours and we've already kissed countless times."

"Are you complaining?" he asked.

"Nope," I told him. "Kiss away,"

We continued to kiss for a while before he finally had to leave for school. We told each other bye and I went ahead and went home. It felt weird for Andre to go off to school while I headed on home.

**Next chapter will be the doctor's appointment!**

**Don't forget to review! :)**


	14. Chapter 14

Tori's POV

An hour or so after I got home, I had a good breakfast with my family. We all just sat and chatted about any and everything. At one point, Trina said, "Man, I'm shocked that the paparazzi aren't all over us today."

"They probably will be by tomorrow." said my mom. "As crazy as the paparazzi is, they're still trying to give us some respect. It wouldn't be a very good reunion if we knew there were millions of people outside simply wanting Tori's interview."

"I didn't think paparazzi cared about privacy." I said.

"They don't for celebrities, but at times like these, they respect the privacy," said my mom. "But don't get used to it. Give it a day or two and they'll start wanting to talk to you."

"What kind of questions do you think they'll ask?" I asked nervously. "If they ask me anything about what happened to me, I'll blow them off. I'm not answering a question like that."

"Honey, I doubt they'll ask a question like that." said my dad immediately. "It'll probably be questions like, 'How does it feel to be back home?' and 'Were you aware of the big search for you?' Would you be able to answer those questions?"

"Yeah, I think I could." I said. "What should I say if they do ask a too personal question?"

"Just tell them that you don't feel comfortable answering it." he said.

I shrugged and said, "Simple enough," Then I continued to eat. I didn't eat much since I got really full quickly. "Blah," I said and pushed the food away. "I need to stop eating so much." I put my hands over my stomach.

"Well, we're certainly not gonna let you starve." said my mom. "The more you eat, the better,"

I groaned. It was so weird that I didn't like eating. "Do I have to eat before or after going to the doctor?"

"Well…" She glanced at her watch. "Since it is nine-thirty, we can eat when we get back."

"Yes!" I said and jumped up. "I'm gonna go take another shower." Even though I was in the shower for thirty minutes the night before, I still didn't feel completely clean. It felt great to take a forty minute shower that morning.

I relaxed for the rest of the morning and just sat in the living room with my parents and Trina. We watched the news a little bit and they were talking about me. It felt almost uncomfortable to have them talking about me, so I eventually looked at my mom and said, "Can we please change it?"

"Of course," she said and changed it to something else.

My mom took me to the doctor at eleven-thirty for my twelve o'clock doctor's appointment. On our way there, I asked, "What am I supposed to do about school? I know I can't go back now since I'd be a semester behind in everything, but I still need a diploma. What should I do?"

"We'll figure something out." she said. "We can probably get you a tutor to come over and help you with your work."

I nodded and then said, "That sounds great. When will that happen?"

"Let's give it awhile." she said. "We don't want you worrying about school when you've just come home."

"Yeah, I guess that's true." I said and then sighed. "So…I know this is really random, but do I still have a phone?"

"No, we disconnected it." she said. "At first we weren't going to, but after a few weeks, your phone had countless texts, missed calls, and voicemails on it. We didn't want to deal with it anymore."

I looked at her strange. "If people knew I was missing, why would they call or text me?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. When we first started to tell people you were missing, the first thing they'd say was if we'd called your phone, but it obviously wasn't with you. I guess people just wanted to know what would happen if they called your phone."

I nodded. "And then what about my Slap page?"

"I'm pretty sure it's still up." she said. "Just obviously not updated,"

"Yeah," I said and then we arrived at the doctor's office. We had to wait a good while before being called in. I was so happy to finally go in since everyone stared at me in the waiting area. I just leaned my head against my mom's shoulder and looked at the ground. I was ready to get this appointment over with.

The doctor checked out all my vitals and said that I was healthy, given the circumstances I had been in. She asked a few personal questions, but it was only questions regarding my health so it wasn't that bad. From what I told her, she determined that I was low in nutrients, so she said she would write a prescription for some vitamins. She also told me that I should have six small nutritious meals a day for the next few weeks. She said it would help me gain some weight and it would help me get more nutrients than just picking at my three meals a day.

After asking all those questions, she asked me if the man had done anything to harm me seriously. I gulped and nodded. "Yeah," I pulled my right pant leg up and laid on my stomach. "He threw a broken beer bottle at my leg."

I heard both my mom and the doctor gasp. "Oh, my God," said my mom.

The doctor said, "How deep did it go in?" I felt her gently run her fingers across the scar.

"Deep," I said. "Whenever I run, pain shoots through it."

"Did it get infected?"

"Yeah," I said. "I had a fever and woke up in a cold sweat three nights in a row."

"What did you put on it?"

"Just bandages," I answered. "I washed it all the time with warm water and soap and kept it covered, but I guess that wasn't enough."

She kept touching it for another moment, but then she said, "Okay, I'm gonna give it a light punch and tell me if it hurts. I'm testing to see if the muscle was scarred."

I could have told her it was, but I still answered, "Okay,"

I waited for a moment and then I felt her punch my leg. I flinched, pulling my leg away. "Ow!" I yelled. "I thought you said you were just gonna give it a light punch! What was that?"

"Tori, honey, calm down," said my mom. "She didn't punch your leg that hard. In fact, she barely touched it." She sighed. I suddenly felt bad for yelling at the doctor. "So what does this mean?"

"Just that the muscle scarred," said the doctor. "There's nothing we can do about it now. She will just have pain whenever she runs. I'm sorry, Tori,"

"It's fine." I told her. "So can I sit back up now?"

"Yeah, you can,"

I turned over and set back up.

After all of that was over, she took me to another part of the clinic so she could take some blood. She said it would check to see if I had any weird illnesses and to check my vitamin and mineral levels. I didn't think anything was wrong with me, but you never know.

Afterwards, they had my mom and I wait in the room we were previously in. The doctor said, "I'll be back as soon as soon as I can."

Once the door shut, I said, "You don't think anything is wrong with me, do you?"

"I don't think so, honey." she said and ran her hand down the back of my hair. "They just want to be sure. Better safe than sorry,"

"Yeah, that's true," I said.

We sat there in silence for a good bit. I was getting a little nervous because of how long it was taking. When I let out a shaky sigh, my mom walked over to me and wrapped her arm around my shoulders, giving me a light hug. "It'll be okay." she said. "Even if by chance you do have something. We'll get through it."

I was about to say something, but the door opened and the doctor walked in. My mom went and sat back down. By the look on the doctor's face I could tell something wasn't right. My heart started pounding hard. I gulped and asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine, but…I have some news for you." she said. I couldn't tell if it was about to be good or bad news.

Either way, my heart picked up speed. "What is it?"

"Tori…you're pregnant."

…

**So I think some of you were probably expecting this to happen, but if not…are you shocked? Next chapter we'll see Tori's reaction to all this! How do you think she'll react?**

** Review and I'll review tomorrow instead of in two days! But probably not. You never know. Just review, haha! **


	15. Chapter 15

**I have nothing to say as an author's note besides, enjoy! And sorry to keep you guys waiting haha**

Tori's POV

My jaw dropped and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I put my arms around my stomach and squeaked out, "What?" My heart felt like it was just vibrating.

She nodded. "You're pregnant. I don't think you're very far along, probably less than a month, but you'll want to schedule another doctor's appointment to check everything out and make sure the baby is healthy."

I could feel my body shaking. All I could think was that this couldn't be happening. I did not want to have a baby with the man who kidnapped me, beat me, and raped me. Whenever I looked at that baby, I would just think of him. Plus, I was only eighteen. I wasn't ready to be a mom. "But…no," I said. "I can't be…pregnant." I flinched at the word.

She walked up to me and patted my shoulder. "I know this isn't what you expected and I'm really sorry about that. Now legally, I can't advise you what to do, but there are quite a few options you could take. You'll just need to choose the decision that's best for you."

I nodded, my head in a daze. "Thank you,"

The doctor then went on to explain everything else they found through drawing blood. They discovered what specific vitamins and minerals I was low on and she made sure those were prescribed.

I only heard half of what she said.

"So are we done here?" asked my mom once the doctor was done talking.

"Yeah, I believe we're good." said the doctor and she looked at me and smiled. "It was good to see you, Tori."

"You too," I said quietly, because it's the nice thing to say. It wasn't that I didn't like her; I just didn't like the news she gave me.

"Alright, let's go Tori," said my mom and I got up from the bed. Me, my mom, and the doctor walked out of the room and down the hall. My mom paid out and then we left. It was taking everything I had not to cry.

Once we got in the car, I burst into tears. "Mom, this can't be happening!" I said shakily. "I hate that man so much! Why did it have to be me? I would have rather him killed me than for him to get me pregnant!"

"Tori, relax, okay?" said my mom. "I know that you didn't want to get pregnant by this guy and I didn't want that either. I can't even imagine you being pregnant, but…maybe this is a good thing. A baby is a blessing, Tori. This could be a bad thing turned into a good thing, the light at the end of the tunnel."

I looked at her in shock. "A good thing? You're saying it's a good thing? Do you know who this baby's father is? It's the man that caused me a lifetime of pain in six months! I don't want to be the mother to his baby!"

"Tori, it's your baby too." she said gently. "In fact, it's more your baby than his. I doubt he'll ever see that baby or even know he or she exists. It's not his right to know."

"But he's the father, so shouldn't he have the right to know?" I asked.

"Not based on what he did to you," she said. "He's in jail right now and will probably be there for the rest of his life. We won't know that until we go to court, but it's not hard to guess that he'll spend the rest of his life behind bars."

It just then occurred to me that we would have to go to court. I would have to stand in front of a jury and explain in great detail what that man did to me. Worst of all, I'd have to face that man. I gulped and said, "When will that take place?"

"I don't know, but it'll probably be a good while from now." she said.

I sighed shakily and then looked out the window. I didn't know what else to think of this situation. Just like the doctor said, I had different options to take: I could get an abortion, give the baby up for adoption, or just keep the baby. The thing was that none of those options suited me. If I got an abortion, I would live my whole life knowing that I killed a life. If I gave the baby up for adoption, I would live my whole life knowing that my baby was with another family and that I didn't have to guts to keep it. If I kept the baby, well…I'd be a mother. The worst thing about that would be that there's a chance that the baby will look like his or her dad. If that were the case, I'd never wanna look at him or her. At the same time, I knew that that wouldn't be fair to the baby.

By the time I got home, I had a horrible headache.

I jumped out of the car and ran in the house, heading up to my room. My dad was sitting in the living room when I walked in. My mom was right behind me. "Tori, please come back here!" said my mom. "We have to talk about this!"

"There's nothing to talk about!" I yelled. "My life is over!"

"No, it's not…Tori!" she yelled, but I was already at the top of the stairs. "Please, Tori, let's just–" I couldn't hear the rest of her sentence since I closed the door to my room and locked it.

I slid down my door and just cried. I didn't know what else to do.

After being in my room for an hour, I heard a knock on my door. "Tori?" said my mom's voice. My door was still locked, so I knew she couldn't get in. "Tori, honey, please come out," she said. "You need to eat. I've got some food for you right here." She waited for a moment while I continued to lie on my bed. "Okay, I'll just…I'll leave the food out by your door."

I waited a few minutes and then I rolled on my back. I put my arms around my stomach and looked up at the ceiling. I still couldn't believe I had a baby inside of me. My stomach was growling a little bit. It probably would be a good idea to have a little food.

I hopped off the bed and walked up to my door and unlocked it. I slowly opened it and looked around to make sure no one was there. There wasn't, so I reached down and picked up the tray and shut the door behind me, locking it again.

My mom had made me a simple ham, mayonnaise, and cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. I ended up eating the entire sandwich but leaving the crust and finishing the milk. I was stuffed by the time I was done.

An hour or so later, I walked up to my window and moved the curtain aside so I could look out. There were so many newscasters' vans out there with countless newscasters with microphones and notepads. My dad was standing there talking to them. He was probably telling them that I was locked in my room.

I heard a knock on my door. "Tori…" said my mom. "I see that you took your food in. Did you eat it all?" I bit my lip and turned to the door. I slowly walked up to it and opened it. My mom smiled at me. "Hey sweetie,"

I didn't smile at her, but I did say hi.

"Did you eat all your food?" she asked.

"All but the crust," I whispered.

"That's good." she said. "It's also really good that you eat as much as can, especially now."

I just looked at my mom and the longer I looked at her, the more I wanted to cry. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I started bawling. "Oh, baby, it's okay." she said and wrapped her arms around me. I put my arms around her. "You'll be fine."

"I can't do it, Mom." I said through my tears. "I can't be a mother right now and…I don't want to be."

"I know, honey, I know." she said. "It's a lot to take in, but you don't have to make a decision now. I still have to make a doctor's appointment for you."

I continued to cry. "Mom…I don't wanna talk to all the people out there. I just can't…"

"And you don't have to," she said and we pulled apart. She wiped away a few of my tears. "You don't have to worry about it; your dad is talking to them right now."

"He's not telling them about…" I put my hands over my stomach. "Is he?"

"Oh, my gosh, of course not," she said. "We haven't told anyone." Just then, we heard the door bell ring. My mom glanced in the general direction of the door and then said, "Who could that be?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm just gonna stay in my room."

"Okay, honey," She gave me a quick kiss on the forehead and then headed downstairs.

I closed the door and locked it. I walked over to the window and looked back outside. There were still a bunch of newscasters out there and my dad was in the middle of them and talking about something. I looked a little closer and realized that Trina was out there with him. I rolled my eyes; my sister just had to be in the spotlight regardless of the situation.

A moment later, I heard a knock on my door. I groaned loudly and walked over to my door. "Why can't you people just leave me alone?" I exclaimed and pulled my door open. "Please just le–" I stopped talking and my breath caught in my throat. I suddenly felt like I wanted to cry again.

Andre raised his eyebrows. "Please just what?"

I burst into tears. No words were spoken, but Andre still knew how to make me feel better. He wrapped his arms around me and then managed to carry me to my bed. He laid down next to me and put an arm around me. He kissed my forehead and said, "What happened at the doctor's?"

I sobbed a few times before telling him. "I'm…I'm pregnant."

I heard him take in a quick breath. "Oh, Tori…" he whispered and gave my hand a squeeze. "I'm so sorry. Do you know how far along you are?"

I shook my head. "The doctor isn't certain, but she thinks it's at least less than a month." I pressed my hands on my stomach. "My stomach doesn't feel any different, so I know she's probably right."

"So…what are you gonna do?" he asked after a moment.

"I don't know." I told him. "I have three options: abortion, adoption or just keep it, but…I hate all three of those options." I explained to him what each of those options meant to me and what the consequence would be. He listened carefully and nodded every once in awhile. "What do you think I should do?" I asked once I was done with my explaining.

"You know…" he said and he pushed a few strands hair off my forehead. "If it were up to me, I'd tell you to keep the baby, but…it's not my decision. It's all you and I know you will make the right choice."

My eyes filled up with tears. "What if I chose to keep the baby? What if…what if he or she looks like their dad?" I shook my head. "I would never be able to look at him or her."

"Yeah, you would, Tori," he said softly. "You would love that baby more than anything. It's not the baby's fault that he or she was created. Maybe it was the best thing that could have happened."

"Andre, this baby came to me because of some jerk who raped me." I said. "How could that be the best thing that's ever happened to me?"

"I'm not saying that's the best thing that could have happened, but this baby might be the best thing." he said. "There's a difference between those two things."

"But…if that man hadn't kidnapped me and did what he did to me, I wouldn't be pregnant right now." I said. "Are you saying you're glad he did this to me?"

He looked visibly shocked that I would even say that. "Oh, my God, Tori! No, of course not!" he exclaimed. "I hate that he took you and did what he did, but…I'm just saying. Maybe this baby will be a good thing. You never know."

I sighed heavily and then cleared my throat. "Andre, um…we obviously have different views on the subject, so…can we please not talk about this? It's getting really uncomfortable."

"Oh yeah, sure," he said. "We could talk about how hard it was for me to get in your house since those newscasters are crowding up your front yard. You're quite the celebrity."

I giggled and shook my head. I laid down on my side and put my hands under my head. "Yeah, but it's not the kind of fame anyone would ever want."

"Well, if you were to ask Trina, it's sure worth it."

I rolled my eyes. "Well…anyone, but my sister,"

He chuckled lightly. "You know…speaking of Trina…she really missed you during these past six months. Remember how excited she was that she would be graduating?" I nodded. "I'd never seen someone look that depressed. They gave her diploma to her and she walked back to her seat; she wouldn't shake hands with the people up there. A lot of her friends were really excited, but not Trina and everyone could tell. Once the ceremony was over, your parents walked up to her and she started bawling. I think she took it the hardest out of everyone."

"You know…" I started off. "Trina and I may fight like crazy, but…we still love each other like crazy. I'm not even kidding; if anyone ever lays a hand on her or hurts her in anyway, I will kill them."

"Aww, look at you," I said. "Protecting your big sis,"

I shrugged. "We always protect each other." I told him. "Like for example…if you were to hurt me, she'd probably cut your balls off." I smiled an evil smile at him.

"Ouch," he said with a slight smile. "But guess what…" He leaned down and got just an inch away from my lips. "I will never hurt you, my love."

"Why do you torture me like this?" I whispered and pulled him closer to me. "Why do your lips get this close, but you don't kiss me?"

"Just say the words, babe." he whispered.

I giggled. "You're so cheesy, but I love you." I pulled his face to mine and passionately kissed him. He kissed me back passionately, but a moment later, we pulled apart. Kissing was fun and all, but it was nice to just have him close. For the next hour, we kissed close to a hundred times while just holding each other. The newscasters remained outside of my house the whole time.

…

**I want your opinion…what do you think Tori should do?**


	16. Chapter 16

Tori's POV

While being with Andre, I momentarily forgot about my pregnancy, but as soon as he left, I got to thinking about it again. I didn't even wanna believe that I had a baby inside of me, but it was true. When I had my first doctor's appointment two weeks later, I was confirmed to be five weeks pregnant. They tried to determine my due date by asking me when my last period was, but I honestly had no idea. My period was so irregular while I was with the guy, so I never kept up with it. So they basically estimated by adding thirty-five weeks and therefore my due date was August nineteenth.

When I got home from the doctor's appointment, the doorbell rang. I sighed and got up to answer it. Jade was at the door. "Jade?" I said.

She held up a check. "I'm not taking this." She threw it at me and ran in my house.

I looked at the check and saw that it was the money she received for finding me, all one hundred thousand dollars. I rolled my eyes and looked at Jade. "Jade, when are you gonna understand that you deserve this money?"

"I don't deserve that money!" she argued back and then crossed her arms. "It should go to someone else."

"Jade, look," I said and pointed to the name on the recipient's line. "Do you see the name right there? It says Jade West…that's you." I threw the check back at her. "They gave you this check for a reason. Would you please just take the money?"

She glared at me. "Why should I?"

"Because you deserve it, that's why." I said.

"No, I don't," she said. "I'm not taking it."

Suddenly, I thought of an idea. I smiled at her. "You sure you don't want this money?"

"Positive," she said and threw it at me.

"Okay," I said with a shrug. "Then I guess you wouldn't mind if I did this?" I held the check up and put it between my fingers. It looked like I was about to rip it.

She raised her eyebrows. "You wouldn't really rip that check, would you?"

"What does it matter to you?" I said and tightened the grip of the check in my fingers. "You don't want the money."

"Well, no, but…" She gulped. "You don't really wanna rip it…do you?"

I walked around Jade and headed in the kitchen. "You don't want it…I don't want it." Without Jade knowing, I put the check down. "I doubt anyone else would want it since they weren't the ones who called the cops." My mom's check book happened to be on the table. I ripped out a blank check while saying, "If no one wants it, I might as well just rip it up." I held up the blank check, but Jade just saw the back of it.

She giggled and shook her head. "You're not gonna rip it."

"Try me," I said slyly and ripped the check evenly in half.

"Tori, you didn't!" she yelled and ran up to me and grabbed the two halves of the check. She looked at the front side and then a confused look spread across her face. "But…you just…I thought that–"

I picked up her check from the table. "Here's the actual check."

She sighed heavily and grabbed it from me. "That was evil."

I crossed my arms. "Evil, but clever. I had to get it in your head that you do deserve that check."

She looked down at the check and remained silent for a few moments. "But…I don't want you to think that I called the police just so I could get this money. I wasn't even thinking about the money when I called them."

"I believe you." I told her. "Take that money and put it in a savings account or something. You don't have to spend it all right now. Plus that's a lot of money. It would be stupid to blow it all right now."

She nodded. "Yeah, that's true."

Jade stayed for a few more minutes, but then she left. She told me she was going to the bank to put the money in a savings account.

A few days after my doctor's appointment, the police thought they found the place where I'd been held captive, but they needed proof from me. They asked me if I could take a look at it and I agreed. When I arrived at the house, I had one look at it and I said, "That's it."

I walked around the house with a few cops, my parents, and Trina right behind me. I told them what room was which, but I left out what went on in each room. When we walked in my room, I was swarmed with memories, but they weren't the good memories. I gulped and looked around. "This was my room." I walked up to the bed and ran my hand over the cable used to hold my left ankle down. "He held me to the bed by strapping cables to my ankles and wrists." I looked down at both my wrists. "That's why I have permanent red marks around my wrists and ankles. I fought against them and they were really tight."

No one said anything for a moment. Finally my mom said, "Maybe they'll fade with time."

I sighed heavily. "I really hope so,"

Just as I dropped the cable, I heard Trina say, "Hey, what's that?"

I looked at her. "What's what?"

"That," she said, pointing under the bedside table. She walked over to it and got on her knees. She grabbed a folded up piece of notebook paper and stood up with it. She looked at me. "Do you know what this is?"

My heart was pounding extra hard. "Let me see it," She handed it to me and I unfolded it. It turned out to be two pieces of paper folded up together and I held them both out. I gasped when I realized what they were. It was the lyrics to the two songs I wrote: Superman and Skyscraper. "These are lyrics to two songs I wrote."

"You wrote songs?" asked Trina. "I thought you didn't know how to write songs."

I gulped. "I usually can't, but…these songs just came out." I folded the papers back up and stuffed them in my pockets. Then I continued with the "tour" of the house.

You wouldn't believe the amount of memories that flashed through my brain while giving the tour.

….

**Okay, so if this was real life, I don't know if Jade would actually get all the money or if it would be split up among all the people that helped Tori become found. I think it would be, but for the sake of this story, let's just pretend Jade would get it all. It makes it more interesting, haha :P**

**Don't forget to review!**


	17. Chapter 17

Tori's POV

A few days later, I had Christmas with my family and it was the best Christmas ever. On Christmas Eve, I had a nice meal with my close family and my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents and then we all opened presents. I laughed and had a good time with them, but during it all, I couldn't stop thinking about my pregnancy. I had no idea what I wanted to do about the situation.

On Christmas Day, I spent it with my parents and Trina. Trina and I got some really nice stuff. The best gift I got was a cell phone. It was a PearPhone and looked just like my old PearPhone, but it was purple instead of blue. It was upgraded and had a new number, but it was basically the same phone. Honestly, I could have gotten nothing and it would have still been the best Christmas of my life. I was just happy to be with the people that I love.

Andre came over that evening and gave me my Christmas present. He gave me the most beautiful charm bracelet I'd ever seen. I actually started crying after he helped put it on me. "What's wrong, Tor?" he asked gently.

"It's just…" I started off while still crying. "I didn't get you anything and I feel so bad." I cried at the littlest things.

He smiled at me and then gave me a full but gentle kiss. "Are you kidding me? You gave me the best Christmas present anyone could ever ask for."

I looked at him confused. "What are you talking about?"

He tucked hair behind my ear. "You being found was the best present I could ever ask for. I'd been praying so hard and long the six months you were missing and when I found out you had been found on December second, I had never felt so happy."

I smiled at him. "How did you find out I'd been found?"

"The news," he said. "I was bored in my room and just flipping through the channels. I got to a news channel and it said breaking news at the top of the screen and at the bottom, the words said, 'Tori Vega has been found alive' and I flipped out. I called all of our friends and told them and most of them were very shocked."

"Most?" I asked.

"The only reason I say most is because one of them already knew that you'd been found," he said with a smile.

I laughed. "Did Jade tell you right away that she was the one who called the police?"

"Yep," he told me. "I immediately got in my car and went to her house and gave her the biggest bear hug in the history of the world. I was squeezing her so hard that she said she couldn't breathe."

"Oh, wow, Andre," I said while giggling. "But you know…I've never had one of those huge bear hugs." I stood up from the couch. "Hug?" I said and held my arms out. I was looking at him with my puppy dog eyes.

He smiled widely and said, "How can I say no to those eyes?" Then he stood up and engulfed me in a bear hug and spun me around. When he set me down, he took my face in his hands and kissed me. "How was that?"

"Fantastic," I whispered.

Once the holidays came to an end, I had nothing to distract myself from my pregnancy, so that's all I thought about. It left me deep in thought all day and unable to sleep at night. When I did go to sleep, I'd have nightmares because of my ordeal which would cause me to wake up screaming.

I came to the conclusion that I really did not want this baby and I didn't know how to tell anyone. When I hung out with Andre or the rest of the gang, they would always ask me if I was okay and I'd tell them that I was, but I obviously wasn't and I think they could tell that.

On a day in January when I was two months pregnant, I couldn't stop staring at myself in my bedroom mirror. I stared at the reflection of my stomach more than anything, wanting nothing more than for that baby to get out of my stomach. I put my hands over my stomach and shook my head. "Why?" I said angrily. "You just had to be created, didn't you? This is not the right time and yet you still had to come. Why did you have to ruin my life?" I screamed in my hands and collapsed to the ground. "Why?" I screamed and hit my stomach. "I don't want you!" I hit my stomach again. I probably should have felt guilty doing this, but at the moment, I didn't care. I just wanted to get rid of this baby.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. I continued to lie on the ground and think about it. The more I thought of it, the more I wanted to go ahead with my plan even if it was without a doubt the stupidest plan in the world. I shook the bad thought out of my head and jumped off the floor and ran to the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I would have locked it, but my parents and Trina weren't home, so it didn't really matter.

I ran to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of sleeping pills. I tried to get the lid off, but for some reason, it was stuck. I started to get really frustrated and I began to cry. The more I cried, the weaker I got and the harder it got to pull the lid off. In that instant, I heard a knock on the door. "Tori?" It sounded like Andre's voice. "Are you in there?"

"I can't get the lid off!" I screamed. "It's stuck!"

"What are you talking about, Tori?" he asked a little nervously.

"The bottle cap is stuck!" I screamed. "It won't come off!"

The door suddenly flung open and Andre was staring at me with big eyes. "Tori, oh, my God, what are you doing?" he exclaimed and ran up to me and tried to get the bottle from my hands.

"No, stop!" I said screaming and I fought with him. "Give that back!"

"Tori, just let go of it!" he screamed and then the cap flew off and the bottle landed on the ground. The pills spilled all over the ground, scattering across the bathroom floor.

I got on my hands and knees and scooped up some pills in my hand, but Andre was on the ground with me and he knocked them out of my hand. He pushed all the pills that were in reaching distance away so I couldn't grab them. "Tori, what are you trying to do?" he exclaimed as he rolled me onto my back and held me to the ground by my wrists.

"I hate this baby, Andre!" I exclaimed. "I don't want it; I want to kill it!"

"Tori, if you really don't want this baby, just give it up for adoption and give it to someone who does want a baby!" he exclaimed. "Every baby deserves to be loved. Don't you get that?"

"I can't do that!" I screamed. "Please let go of me, Andre!"

Andre fought with me for another moment or two, but then I surrendered. He pulled me against his chest and let me cry. I wasn't just crying; I was bawling my eyes out.

Because of how exhausted I was, I somehow managed to cry myself to sleep in his arms. He continued to hold me tightly the entire time.

**Have any of you seen the movie Cyberbully? Parts of this chapter remind me of a scene in that movie; it was just a coincidence!**

**Don't forget to review! :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy :)**

…

Tori's POV

I was sent to the hospital for a few days after that incident. When I finally got to go home, I had to stay in bed for a week straight. I was given a special kind of medication (that was safe for my unborn baby) to take every six hours. It made me extra sleepy, so I slept all the time. Because of the "trying to kill my baby" incident, I was kept on a close eye. I only woke up to take the pill, take my vitamins, and eat. The reason why the doctors wanted me to sleep all the time was because it would rest my mind and also get the bad thoughts of wanting to kill my baby out of my head.

Once I stopped taking that medication, I started going to a therapist, who convinced me that my baby was a miracle from God and that I shouldn't regret getting pregnant with him or her. I got to the point where I didn't hate my baby anymore, but I still didn't know what I should do regarding the future of my baby.

My therapist also helped me get past my ordeal. She had special techniques that helped me release my anger and sadness and it really helped. I got to where it wasn't as painful to talk about and I didn't have the flashbacks or nightmares on a regular basis anymore. Since I was traumatized beyond repair, I still had the occasional flashback or nightmare, but it was nothing I couldn't handle.

When I was about six and a half months pregnant, all my friends graduated from high school. Since I was starting to get big, they didn't think I'd show up to the graduation ceremony, but there was no way I was missing it. After all, it was my boyfriend and my four other best friends that were graduating.

After the ceremony, we all went to Beck's RV to hang out for a little bit. We were all sitting around the RV and I was sitting back against the bed. I put my hands around the top of my stomach and said, "I can't believe you guys graduated high school today."

"You should have been up there with us!" exclaimed Cat.

I softly smiled and looked down. No one said a word. I sighed and said, "Yeah, I should have been. If it wasn't for that stupid idiot, I would have." I cleared my throat and changed the subject. "So…what are all you guys' plans?"

"Plans?" asked Andre.

"Yeah, like since you're all graduated, where are you guys headed?" I asked. "And it's really depressing, because I don't want you guys to leave me."

Everyone giggled. I looked all of them in shock. "Why are you guys laughing at me?" I exclaimed. I got mad at the littlest things; my hormones were crazy. "What is so funny? I love you guys and I'd like to know what's gonna happen!"

"Relax, Tori, just relax." said Beck while still giggling. "We were just laughing because there's no way we're leaving you. We're not leaving LA."

My eyes widened and I looked at the faces of everyone. "You're not?" I finally asked.

"Nope," said Beck. "We're staying here."

"Well…what are you all gonna do?" I asked slowly.

"I'm gonna audition for a TV show this July and it starts production late in the year." said Beck. "If that doesn't pan out, there are a lot of other auditions out there. I'm not giving up."

"I bet you'll get the role though." I said to Beck. "You're really talented."

He smiled. "Thanks, Tor,"

"I got a record deal, so I'm working on an album." said Cat. "I've already written a bunch of songs; I just need to start recording them."

"That's awesome, Cat." I told her. "I'll be the first one to buy it."

She giggled in response.

"I'm going to college at UCLA in the fall." said Jade. "I wanna focus on my education right now and then see what'll happen in the world of fame."

"Jade, you're so talented." I told her. "Trust me; you'll make it in the world of fame."

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

"I have a bunch of comedy gigs coming up." said Robbie. "Rex is a big part of my act."

"That's so cool." I said. "I bet you and Rex are hilarious."

"What can I say?" he said with a shrug.

I giggled and looked at Andre. "What about you, Mister? What will you be doing?"

He smiled. "I've got a record deal, so I'll spend my time coming up with songs and, hopefully, coming out with an album fairly soon."

"Well, that's awesome." I said and then looked at all my friends. "It's awesome for all of you guys. I love that all of you guys will be successful."

"And what about you?" asked Cat. "What will you do?"

I smiled and gently patted my stomach. "I've got enough to worry about right now."

…

A few weeks later, when I was seven months pregnant, I was just sitting in my room watching TV. I was suddenly distracted when I felt the baby kicking. I looked down at my stomach and put my hand where I felt the kicking the strongest. I had the choice to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl, but I decided not to know. I'd let that be a surprise.

A moment later, I heard my phone ding. I grabbed it and saw I had a text message from Andre. He asked if he could come to my house and I texted back immediately telling him he could. He told me he'd be there as soon as he could.

Ten minutes later, he walked in my room. He smiled at me and said, "Hey babe,"

I giggled. "Hey babe yourself."

He came in and plopped next to me on the bed. He gave me a quick kiss and then looked down at my stomach. "Wow, you're getting big." I really was big. I looked like I had a pillow shoved up my shirt.

"I know," I said with a smile and continued to rub my hand down my stomach. "I feel humungous. I'm ready for August eleven to get here just so I can get this baby out." My original due date was August nineteenth, but it got moved to August fourteenth. Not that much difference, but it was something.

"I bet," he said and cleared his throat. "Is the baby kicking?" Andre asked me that all the time. It was his way of wanting to feel the kicking, but he never knew how to put it into words. He never actually told me those words, but I could tell it's what he was thinking. He'd never felt my stomach before.

"Mhmm," I told him. I looked at him and smiled. "Wanna feel?"

He looked at me with wide eyes. "It's okay?"

"Of course," I said. "People touch my stomach all the time."

"But…isn't it awkward?"

I shrugged. "Why would it be awkward?"

"I don't know." he said and ran his hands through his hair. "It's just…I know I'd feel awkward about it."

I smiled at him. "Here, I'll make it easier." I grabbed his hand and gently placed it where the kicking was the strongest. He gasped at the feeling. "See?" I said and took my hand away, but he kept his firmly on my stomach. "It's not awkward."

He shook his head. "It's the most amazing thing I've ever felt."

In that instant, the kicking got so much stronger to the point where it almost hurt. I gasped and said, "Oh, my gosh,"

Andre looked at me with concern and took his hand away. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, but then paused when I realized the kicking stopped. "Wait…it stopped. The kicking was unbelievably strong for a few seconds, but then it stopped. That's weird."

"Hmm," he said and put his hands on my stomach again. He looked at my stomach and whispered, "Why are you kicking so hard in there?" Just then, the kicking picked back up and was stronger than before. I grimaced and groaned. Andre smiled, feeling the strong kicking. "You must be really excited."

Andre kept his hands there for another moment and then took them away. The kicking calmed down and I let out a sigh of relief. "Goodness, that's never happened before." I said and then ran my hands through my hair. Just then, something occurred to me. "Wait a minute…when did the kicking get that strong?"

Andre shrugged. "I don't know. You said 'oh, my gosh' after I spoke. Do you think it had to do with me speaking?"

I thought about that for a moment and then nodded. "I think it did. Because when you took your hands away, the kicking died down. And then when you put them on my stomach again and started talking, the kicking picked up again." I smiled at Andre. "The baby likes you."

"Well, I guess it's better than the other way around." he said and I giggled. "So…I know you don't know if this is a boy or a girl, but have you thought of any names?"

I sighed heavily. I hated this subject. "Andre…I don't even know if I'm gonna want to keep this baby."

"But…you just said that you can't wait for August eleventh so you can have him or her." he said confused.

"I did say that, but what I meant is that I don't wanna be pregnant anymore." I said. "It's not a very fun feeling; in fact, it's quite miserable. I have headaches, backaches, and just generally feel miserable all the time. Most of the time, I can't even sleep at night. It's hard to get comfortable with this huge stomach."

He slowly shook his head. "After all this time of feeling the baby kick, you still don't want it?"

"Okay, Andre, I love you, but I'm gonna have to ask you to please be quiet." I said firmly. "You know I hate that subject and yet you still bring it up. You should be happy that I haven't killed this baby yet." He flinched, probably thinking about the time I actually tried to kill this baby. I cleared my throat. "Listen…I will have this baby. I'll give birth like every other lady that's pregnant, but I can't guarantee that I'll keep the baby. I probably won't decide that until after this baby is born." I sighed shakily and grabbed his hand. "Andre, I need you. I also need to know that if I decide to give up this baby that you'll still be there for me. I need to know that you'll support me no matter what happens. Can you do that?"

He smiled and nodded. He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "I promise I'll always be there for you."

"Thank you," I whispered and then pulled him closer and rested my head on his shoulder. He put his arms around me and I placed my hand on his chest. I was asleep off and on for the next hour. It felt amazing just to be together.

…..

**So as you can see, Tori is still not planning on keeping the baby. What do you think she's gonna do?**


	19. Chapter 19

**Sorry this took so long to post, but here it is! The baby is born in this chapter :) enjoy!**

…..

Tori's POV

I went into labor at 10:00 p.m. on August eleventh. I was actually hanging out with Andre at his house and why I was at his house when I was nine months pregnant and due any day now, I have no idea. I think I just needed to get out of my own house. I felt like a prisoner there for weeks. Because of me being basically locked in a house for six months straight, I hated to be in the same place for too long. It got to me.

Andre and I were watching a movie, but I remained silent for the first thirty minutes after I felt the first contraction. I knew I was in labor from the first contraction, but I didn't want to worry Andre. After thirty minutes, the contractions were getting stronger and closer together; I was secretly timing them on my phone. I couldn't hide it anymore.

Once a contraction ended, I said, "Andre, turn off the movie."

"Um, okay," he said confused, but then he pressed stop. He looked at me. "What's wrong?"

I let out a long sigh. "I'm in labor."

"Oh, my gosh, we have to get to the hospital now!" he exclaimed and helped me off the bed. He stayed right at my side out of his room and all the way down the stairs.

"Shouldn't we get your mom?" I asked when we got to the bottom of the stairs.

"No, I need to get you to the hospital now." he said and we walked outside.

As soon as we got to his car, a contraction came. I groaned and put my back against the car door and slid down to the ground. "Andre, oh, my gosh…this hurts." I moaned.

"I know it does, baby." he said and kissed my forehead. "And I think I will go get my mom; she might be able to help. Just hold on for a sec, okay?"

I nodded and he ran back in his house.

I groaned loudly and wrapped my arms around my stomach. I'd only experienced thirty minutes of labor and it was already awful. The tightening and cramping in my abdomen was really strong. I wanted to get to the hospital so I could get an epidural.

A moment later, Andre came running out with his mom. She ran over to me. "Tori, are you having a contraction?" she asked kneeling in front of me.

"Yes," I said and moaned. "It hurts so badly."

"I know how you feel." she told me. "Let's just get you in the car, honey." She helped me stand up and get in the backseat. Andre got in right beside me. Before she closed the door, she said, "Andre, where are the keys?" I normally would have driven, but I didn't feel like driving at nine months pregnant so Andre had come and got me from my house.

"Right here," said Andre and he handed them to his mom and then she closed the passenger side door. She ran around the car and jumped in the driver's seat. She turned it on and we sped off to the hospital. That contraction finally ended and I let out a breath of relief.

Another contraction came a little bit later; Mrs. Harris was still speeding to get to the hospital. "Mom, don't go too fast." said Andre and grabbed my hand. I squeezed it extra tightly. "We don't need to get stopped by the police."

"Andre, you try being in labor." she said. "It's not fun."

"Well, if you get stopped by the police, it'll just delay us getting to the hospital."

I stopped listening to their chatting and just looked out the window. I tried to breathe through the contraction, but it was difficult. The pain was horrible. I always thought that the contractions aren't as bad at first, but they get worse. If they were this bad now, I was scared for how they would be when I had the baby.

Andre put his hand on my forehead and pushed some of my hair back. "It's alright, Tori, we're almost at the hospital. Just hang in there."

I gulped and nodded. A few seconds later, the contraction subsided. I let out a long breath and said, "Mrs. Harris, could you call my parents?"

"Yeah, of course, honey." she said. "I'll call them as soon as we get to the hospital."

"Thank you," I told her.

We arrived at the hospital five minutes later and I was immediately taken to the labor and delivery wing. Mrs. Harris stayed in the waiting room to call my parents while Andre stayed with me.

Luckily, my doctor was there so that was a relief. I wouldn't have felt comfortable with any other doctor. She let me change in a hospital gown and then she checked out all my vital signs. After all that, she finally checked to see how dilated I was and as it turned out, I was already to a six, surprisingly. The only bad thing was that I was too far along for an epidural. Looks like I'd be feeling everything.

"Do you want me to stay here with you during this?" asked Andre after the doctor left.

I softly smiled. "If you really want to you can; it doesn't bother me. It may bother you, though. Birth is not a pretty sight."

"I got that, but I don't wanna leave you here alone."

"My parents will be here soon, so I won't be alone." I said.

He nodded. "Okay. I'll just wait in the waiting room then."

"That's probably a good idea." I said with a smile. "I don't wanna scar you for life."

Andre stayed with me until my parents and Trina walked in ten minutes later. Just before Andre walked out, he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll be in the waiting room." he whispered as his lips brushed my ear.

I smiled and whispered, "I'll be here."

He waved and then walked out of the room.

"So has the doctor been in here?" asked my mom.

"Mhmm," I said. "She said I'm six centimeters."

"Oh wow," she said. "I guess she already told you that that means no epidural?"

I sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I know." A second later, a contraction hit me. I leaned back and groaned. "Just means a very painful birth." I mumbled in a strained voice.

"It just means you'll have to breathe deeply during the contractions." she said. "If you just focus and stay relaxed, you'll be okay. And then before long, you will have your baby."

I slightly smiled, but didn't say anything. I ignored the fact that she said "my baby." I still didn't know if I wanted it to be my baby.

My dad left to go to the waiting room after that contraction ended, but my mom and Trina stayed. Trina wanted to be in the room when the baby was born, but she wanted to make sure it was okay with me.

I raised my eyebrows. "Are you sure you wanna be in here, Trina? You're gonna see a side of your sister that you've never seen before."

She smiled. "I know, but I wanna be here for you. Just like if I have a baby one day, I want you to be in there for me."

"Aww, thanks Trina." I said.

She smiled and then her and my mom got in scrubs. They were required to be in scrubs if they wanted to be here for the birth of the baby.

Laboring would have been so much more awful if my mom and Trina weren't there with me. The contractions started to come in shorter increments and the pain was excruciating. It got to the point where I was nearly screaming during the contractions. I was reminded to breathe deeply and it helped a little, but I was always moaning and groaning during the contractions.

At exactly twelve o'clock midnight on August twelfth, I gave birth to a baby girl. She didn't cry immediately, but soon she did. "Do you wanna hold her?" asked the doctor.

I shook my head while in tears. "No,"

She nodded and the baby was taken away.

My mom kissed the top of my head and said, "Tori, your baby girl is beautiful."

I gulped. "She's not my baby girl."

I heard her and Trina take in a breath. "But Tori," said Trina. "You just gave birth to her."

"It doesn't mean she's mine." I said. "She can be someone else's baby girl."

…..

Trina's POV

My mom and I looked at each other in shock. We knew that Tori was hesitant to keeping the baby, but we figured that once she heard the baby's cries, she'd want to keep her baby, but I guess not.

I stayed with Tori while my mom walked over to the nurses cleaning off the baby. I heard her whisper, "I know Tori says that she doesn't want her baby now, but I'm thinking she'll change her mind. Can we give her some time?"

I couldn't quite hear what the nurse said in response, but I could tell it was good since my mom was nodding and smiling. Then she looked at me and motioned for me to come closer. I walked up to her and said, "What's up?"

"They're gonna keep her baby in the baby ward for now and her name will be Baby Vega for the time being." she whispered. "I'm thinking that once Tori holds her baby that she'll want her; she's just in shock right now. Unless she can look in her baby's eyes and say the words I don't want her, she will not be given up for adoption."

…

Tori's POV

Did my mom and Trina think I was stupid? I knew they were talking about me in the corner. They probably thought that I would change my mind in wanting the baby, but my mind was set. I did not want that baby.

Once I was cleaned up and the afterbirth was out of me, and the baby was taken out of the room, I just wanted to get some rest. I was completely exhausted. The past two hours had drained all the energy from me.

I was half-asleep when my dad came in the room and kissed the top of my head. "Great job, sweetie." he whispered.

I gave a slight smile in response.

Trina leaned down and gave me a slight hug. "Bye, sis,"

I slightly heard my dad and Trina saying bye to my mom and then they left. My mom sat in a chair next to me and rubbed my shoulder. "You feeling okay, honey?"

I nodded. I was incredibly sore, but I guess that's expected.

She smiled and leaned back in the chair. Then she looked towards the door and smiled widely. She stood up and walked around my bed. I would have looked to see who was there, but I was too tired to move.

A second later, Andre walked into view and gently set on my bed with me. He laid down and held himself up by his elbow. He reached out with his hand and pushed some of my hair off my cheek and tucked it behind my ear. He kept his hand there and gently rubbed my cheek with his thumb. "The baby you just gave birth to, Tor…" he whispered and shook his head. "She's so beautiful."

I bit my lip and sighed. I didn't know what else to do, so I just closed my eyes and let myself fall asleep with Andre right at my side. Right before I drifted off to sleep, I felt Andre kiss my forehead.

….

**I just love Andre, don't you?**

**Don't forget to review, my lovely readers! :)**


	20. Chapter 20

**This is long overdue and I'm sorry about that! I've been out of town and just got home yesterday and I just thought I would give you guys an update. :) Yayy! Haha hope you enjoy!**

….

Tori's POV

I woke up the next morning at about 9:30. I yawned and then looked around the room. I saw my mom with her hands on a cart and she was smiling down at something. I set up and realized she was smiling and talking to the baby. I groaned; why was that baby in the room?

My mom looked at me and smiled. "Oh, hey Tori. How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," I said and crossed my arms. "Why is that baby in here?"

She shook her head and smiled and then looked back down at the baby. "Oh, I'm just talking to her." She leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. "She is so precious, Tori."

"Great," I said sarcastically.

"Tori, you have to hold her." she said and picked her up and then headed towards me. "This baby wants her mama."

"No, Mom, stop," I argued. "I don't wanna hold her."

"Yeah, you do, Tori." she told me. "She's your baby and you're gonna hold her." She practically shoved the baby in my arms and I had to hold her or else I would have dropped her.

I looked at my mom in anger at first, but then I slowly looked down at the baby's face. She was looking up at me while batting her eyelids. She let out a yawn and stretched her arms out. She pulled her arms back in and then she closed her eyes. Her eyes were moving under her eyelids.

I moved my right hand and gently ran my first two fingers across her left cheek and then over her nose. Her skin was soft as silk and it had a beautiful olive complexion. I blinked a few times as tears rolled down my cheeks. She opened her eyes and she started to bat them again; she had long beautiful eyelashes. In that moment, she stole my heart. I loved her with everything I had.

"Well…" said my mom and I looked up at her. "What do you think?"

I cleared my throat. "I think…I think that…" I looked down at my baby and gently ran my hand over her head full of dark brown hair. "I love my baby girl…more than anything else in this world." I leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "I can't believe I didn't want her. She…already means the world to me."

"I know, sweetie." she said quietly. "Would you like some privacy?"

I immediately nodded. "Yes, please. Thank you,"

"You're welcome. I'm gonna run home and get some rest, but if you need anything, just press the call button and a nurse will help you with whatever you need or you could just call us at the house if you want. I'll be back later, okay?"

I slowly nodded. I couldn't take my eyes off my daughter's face.

She walked up to me and kissed the top of my head and then she was out the door.

I spent the next hour crying and talking to my baby. I held her against my chest and rubbed my hands on her back. I hated myself for not wanting her all this time. I had this little miracle inside of me for nine months and all I cared about was myself. I can't believe I was so stupid and selfish. One of the things I said to her in that hour was, "I'm so sorry, baby, I love you so much. I'm so sorry I said I hated you…I could never hate you; you are my whole world." I said stuff like that for that whole hour and not a single word was a lie.

After that hour, a nurse came in and had to take her away from me. As soon as she was out of the room, I started bawling. I wanted my baby with me again. I didn't wanna be away from her for even a few minutes.

While I was bawling, I heard the door open and close, but I didn't look up to see who was here. Then I heard running footsteps. "Oh, my gosh, Tori, are you alright?" It was Andre.

"No, I'm not alright." I answered as he sat on the edge of my bed. "I want my baby with me right now."

He raised his eyebrows. "Your baby?"

"Yes, Andre, my baby; she's my baby!" I exclaimed. "I want to be holding her in my arms right now. I love her so much." I let out a few shaky sighs and then shook my head. "I'm so sorry, Andre. I didn't mean to yell at you, it's just…I want to see her."

He nodded. "I know, it's okay." He leaned down and kissed my forehead. When he rose up, he said, "How long before you get to see her again?" Andre was amazing. Besides the "your baby?" comment, he didn't even question the fact that I did want my baby now. He probably knew all along that I would want her. In fact, everyone probably knew that. Everyone but me.

"I don't know." I said. "The nurse took her away a little bit ago, but I don't know when she'll bring her back. I hope it's soon, because I wanna see her so badly."

"I'm sure she'll bring her back before long." he told me. "So quick question…do you have any idea what you wanna name her?"

I sighed shakily and shook my head. "I have no idea. What I do know is that…I want it to be something special. Something…something that means a lot. And it can't come to me because of looking through a stupid baby name book; it needs to just come to me. I wanna be able to look at my baby's face and have a name hit me."

"I'm sure you'll come up with something." he told me.

Thirty minutes later, the nurse finally brought my baby back in the room. The nurse said hi to Andre and he said hi back. Then she looked at me and said, "Would you like your baby?"

I nodded with a smile. "I'd love her actually."

"Okay then," she said and gently picked her up from the little cart and then handed her over to me. "Is there anything you need?"

"No," I said staring down at my daughter's beautiful face. "I'm perfect."

"Okay," she said. "I'll check back later." She left the cart in the room and then walked out.

"Oh, my God, Tori…she's gorgeous. I know I saw her beforehand when she was in the baby ward, but seeing her up close…oh, my gosh, words can't even describe how beautiful she is." said Andre and smiled. "And she looks just like you."

I giggled and ran my finger across her little eyebrow. "I'm so glad. I don't know what I'd do if she looked like him." I leaned down and kissed her forehead. "But you know what? I'd still love her even if she did."

We both remained silent and just stared at her peaceful face. It was fifteen minutes later that I finally thought of a name. I looked up at the wall and smiled. "Perfect," I whispered and looked down at my daughter. "I just thought of the perfect name for you."

"What name?" asked Andre quietly.

"I'm naming her after someone…really special." I looked up at him. "It may sound stupid to everyone in the world, but it's not stupid to me. My whole life changed because of this person." I sighed heavily. "How's the name…Jadelynne?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Jadelynne?" I nodded. "Isn't that Jade's full name?"

"Yep," I said and looked down at my daughter. "Jade saved my life and, in my opinion, the least I could do is name my daughter after her. And besides…it is a really beautiful name."

"That sounds fantastic, Tori." he said. "But would you call her Jadelynne or Jade?"

"Probably Jadelynne, just so no one gets confused." I hesitated for a moment. "But it's been decided. My daughter's name is Jadelynne Audrey Vega." I looked up at Andre. "You know where the Audrey comes from?"

"Where?" he asked with a smile.

"It sounds like Andre," I said. "I mean, let's face it…Jade saved my life, but you saved Jadelynne's life and probably mine as a matter of fact. Both of you helped me out in ways neither one of you can understand."

"Wow, I'm already happy that you're gonna call your baby Jadelynne instead of Jade." he told me. "Because if not, that last statement would have been very confusing."

I laughed, completely agreeing with him.

Never in a million years would I have imagined naming my daughter after Jade West. I couldn't wait to see how Jade would react to this.

…

**So what do you think of the baby's name? Clever huh? ;)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Happy Sunday! I hope you guys are having a good day :) here's the next chapter!**

….

Tori's POV

Andre left almost an hour later, but then my parents and Trina showed up a few minutes after he left. They all pulled up chairs and sat around the bed. "So…" started off my mom slowly. "How's it been with your daughter?"

"It's been fantastic," I said. "I have bonded so much with her. I can't wait to take her home with me."

"Well, good news; I've talked to your doctor and she said you and your baby should be good to go home tomorrow."

"Oh, sweet!" I said and looked down at Jadelynne. "You know I gave her a name, so we can stop calling her 'the baby.'" I smiled down at her. "I've decided to name her Jadelynne."

"Jadelynne?" said Trina. "Is that Jade's full name?"

"Yep, it is," I told her. "Jade saved my life, so I figured I'd name my baby after her."

"Oh, wow, does Jade know?" asked my dad.

"No, I haven't seen her today." I told him. "Andre said he'd bring our friends by later today, so I'll tell her then. I could easily call her and tell her, but I'd rather tell her in person."

"That makes sense," said my dad.

I nodded and looked down at Jadelynne.

"Um, Tori?" asked Trina after a moment of silence.

"Hmm?"

"Uh…can I…hold Jadelynne?"

I smiled. "Of course, Trina," Trina and I both leaned in and I carefully handed Jadelynne over to her.

She gasped slightly and leaned back against her chair. "Oh, Tori…she's so beautiful." She gently ran the back of her hand over her cheek. "Hey there, precious…I love you." She leaned down and kissed her forehead.

I smiled at the sight. It took about three seconds to make this next decision. "Trina…would you like to be the godmother?"

She looked at me with wide eyes. "Godmother? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I'm serious," I told her. "You're my one and only sister and you're the only one I would trust with her if something were to happen to me."

She blinked a few times. "Oh, my gosh…Tori, that's the most amazing thing anyone's ever said to me. And I promise you, when I have a kid someday, you'll be the godmother to my child."

"Aw, Trina, you don't have to do that." I said to her.

"But I want you to be. It would mean a lot to me."

"Oh, well…thanks Trina,"

She smiled and then looked down at Jadelynne. "So guess what, cutie? Not only am I your aunt, but I'm also your godmother. And I'm gonna be the best godmother you've ever had."

I raised my eyebrows and said, "Uh, Trina…you're obviously her first godmother, so…"

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

After chatting and laughing with my family for an hour, I heard my phone ringing from the table. My dad was holding Jadelynne at the time, so I was able to answer it. "Hello?" I said answering the phone.

"Hey, are you busy right now?" asked Andre on the other line.

"Not really, I'm just sitting here with my family." I said. "Why?"

"Well, I'm here with the gang and I was wondering if you'd be up to seeing them. But if you're with your family, we could come another time."

"Oh no, it's fine, come on down." I said. "I want the rest of you guys to meet her."

"Alright, we'll be there soon."

"See ya," I said and hung up.

"Was that Andre?" asked my mom.

"Yeah and everyone's with him," I said.

"Even Jade?" asked Trina.

"I'm assuming so,"

"Well in that case, we will give you guys some privacy." said my dad and he handed Jadelynne back to me. She was fast asleep at the moment. "Would you like for us to stay here at the hospital?"

"You don't have to, I'll be fine." I said. "I know how boring it gets here."

"Well okay," said my dad. "Just give us a call if you need anything."

"Alright, see ya." He and my mom kissed me and Jadelynne on the forehead and then Trina gave me a little hug and then kissed Jadelynne on the forehead.

"Aww, don't I get a kiss?" I said jokingly to Trina.

"Oh, I almost forget," she said and gave me a huge kiss on the forehead.

"Eww, Trina!" I exclaimed. "I was kidding!" I reached up and wiped my forehead.

She laughed and then her and my parents left a minute later.

Ten minutes later, I heard a knock on the door and then Andre stuck his head in the room. "Knock, knock,"

I giggled. "Come in,"

He opened the door wider and him, Beck, Robbie, Cat, and Jade walked in. They all immediately broke into smiles as they walked up to my bedside. "Tori, she's so cute!" said Cat and she squealed.

"Thanks," I said and then looked up at Cat. "I'm glad you guys came here."

"We're glad we came." said Beck. "Most newborn babies aren't that cute, but your baby is adorable."

I giggled. "Thank you," I looked down at Jadelynne.

"What's her name?" asked Robbie.

I smiled and looked up at Andre. He smiled back at me. I looked up at my friends and said, "Her full name is Jadelynne Audrey Vega,"

Everyone's heads turned to Jade. Jade's eyes widened and her jaw dropped open. When she finally decided to speak, she said, "Tori…are you serious?" Her voice was shaking.

"I'm dead serious." I told her. "I know I say this a lot, but Jade, you saved my life. If you hadn't called the police, I would still be with that man and would probably have given birth while with him. I don't even wanna think about how disastrous that could have been."

"But…but to name your baby after me…are you sure you wanna do that?" she asked shakily. She looked like she wanted to cry. Jade really was mean and tough, but I guess anyone would get emotional after finding out that a baby was named after them.

"Positive," I said. I grabbed Jadelynne's birth certificate from the table next to me and held it out to Jade. "It's official. Her name is Jadelynne, says so on her birth certificate."

"Oh, my God," she whispered and grabbed it. She stared at it for a moment and then laid it back on the table. "Tori…I don't even know what to say." She crossed her arms. "I should probably say thank you, but…it just sounds so weird. I just…I don't know what to say."

"Don't thank me," I told her. "It's my way of thanking you. You really helped me out."

She nodded and smiled and then sighed shakily.

I softly smiled and said, "Are you gonna cry?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm not gonna cry." Her voice was cracking.

"Andre, will you take Jadelynne?" I asked.

Andre nodded and I transferred Jadelynne to his arms. I looked back at Jade. "Are you sure you're not gonna cry?"

"I'm sure," she said shakily. "I don't cry."

Beck put his hand on Jade's shoulder and then rubbed her back. "Jade, it's okay to cry." he said gently.

Those words broke her down. Tears started falling down her cheeks and she began to sob. I held my arms out and said, "Hug?"

She pulled her hand up to her face, but then she nodded. Andre and Beck stepped back to give her room and she half-laid, half-set on the bed and gave me a hug. I put my arms around her and hugged her back.

We came out of the hug a moment later. She looked at me and smiled. Her eyes were red and swollen. "Can I just say thank you a million times?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No," I said. "But what you can do is hold Jadelynne." I looked at Andre. "Andre?"

He nodded with a smile and then while transferring Jadelynne to Jade, he said, "Jadelynne, meet Jadelynne,"

Everyone laughed at that. "Wow, Andre," I started off. "I don't even know who was being introduced to whom," Jade faced forward and leaned back against the bed. I scooted over a little to give her more room.

Jade smiled down at Jadelynne. "Hey there," she whispered. "Oh, you're so beautiful…and you look just like your mother and not your stupid father."

I giggled at Jade. "Even if she looked exactly like him, I'd love her." I said.

Then Jade looked at me. "Wait, can I see the birth certificate again?"

"Yeah, it's on the table right there," I said pointing around her. "Why?"

She grabbed it and looked at it. "Okay, there it is," she said to herself. She glanced at me. "I was just wondering what you put for her father."

I nodded and grabbed the birth certificate. "I left that part blank. Sure, that man helped create her, but there's no way I'm ever letting him near my daughter. He can come kidnap me all he wants, but if he hurts my daughter in anyway…he is dead meat."

"He's in jail, Tori," said Jade. "There's no way he could hurt you or…Jadelynne even if he wants to." She slightly shook her head. "Wow, that felt so weird. It seemed like I was talking about myself."

"Yeah, that's why I've decided to just call her Jadelynne from now on." I told them. "If I shortened her name to Jade, things would get so confusing."

"You know the only reason I shortened my name is because I hated Jadelynne," she told me. "It had nothing to do with the length of it; I just hated the name."

I blinked a few times. "Wow, good thing you continued your sentence, because for a few seconds there, I thought you were saying you hated Jadelynne, as in my daughter Jadelynne."

"Oh, no, no, no, Tori, I did not mean it like that." she said immediately. "I meant that I hate the name for me. But…I love it for your daughter." She looked down at her. "She looks just like a Jadelynne."

We sat there in silence while Andre, Beck, Robbie, and Cat stood there in silence. Finally, Andre said, "Okay, it is way too quiet in here."

"Shh," said Jade harshly. "And a baby is trying to sleep in here. Have a little sympathy."

Everyone lightly chuckled. "Yeah, Andre, listen to Jade." I said jokingly.

He smiled at me and then walked around the bed and stood on the other side of my bed. "I will listen to whoever I wanna listen to." He leaned down and kissed me.

"Better be me you listen to," I said with a smile and kissed him.

"Whoa, okay, too much PDA," said Jade. "Get a room,"

"Okay, two things," I said to Jade. "You and Beck do this all the time; I don't wanna hear it. And second, this is my room. You guys decided to come visit me."

"Fine, we'll leave," said Jade jokingly, but then she handed Jadelynne back to me. "Have fun with your baby daughter." She stood up and crossed her arms.

"I will have fun with her." I said. "But you guys can't leave now. Stay here,"

Jade sighed and then set back down where she was. "Fine…if you insist."

I laughed and then continued to chat with my boyfriend and all my friends. They didn't leave until pretty late, but that was okay, because I loved having them there. You'd think that since there's six of us that one or two people would feel left out in the conversation, but everyone had something to say at some point or another and everyone listened to what each of us had to say. Our personalities blended so well together.


	22. Chapter 22

**So this is chapter is a lot longer than most of the other chapters, but I think you'll like it :) It's a sweet Jori (friendship) chapter; Tori reveals a few secrets to Jade and there's also a sweet Tandre moment during it! Hope you enjoy it!**

**Oh btw, this is the next to last chapter! But don't worry, I have a sequel all ready to post! I wasn't going to make it a sequel, but I felt it was a good stopping point, so I just decided to split it! Haha :)**

…..

Tori's POV

My family didn't come back that day since my friends left pretty late, but they did call me and I got to talk to each of them for a few minutes. I was scheduled to leave at 8:00 the next day, so they told me they would be there at no later than 7:00.

Going to sleep that night was a challenge. I turned my light out and laid down at 10:30, but I couldn't get comfortable. I finally gave it up at eleven and just sat there and watched TV. It was too dark, so I turned the lamp on. There was nothing on TV, so I just flipped through the channels…over and over and over again.

I had probably gone through every channel five times each when a nurse poked her head in my room. "Hey. I didn't think you'd be awake right now." she said softly.

"I shouldn't be," I said back. "I just can't go to sleep."

"Oh, well, um…I was just going back to the baby ward about to feed Jadelynne, but…since your awake–"

"Of course!" I exclaimed.

"Wait, you didn't let me finish," She cleared her throat. "I know you haven't tried it yet and that it's pretty late, but…have you considered breast feeding?"

I blinked a few times. "Uh…" I was speechless for a moment. "I…I haven't even thought about that." Before, the thought of breast feeding was awkward, but it didn't seem so bad now that I had my own baby. I just wasn't sure how it would all work out.

"I can't make you do it." she told me. "It's all up to you, but it is very healthy for you and your baby. There are many benefits to breast feeding that bottle feeding just doesn't have."

"Um…" I gulped. "Well…I guess…I could give it a try, but…I wouldn't know where to start."

"I can help you." she said gently. "I help a lot of first time mothers breast feed."

"Oh, well, um…okay," I smiled. "Thanks,"

"Sure. I'll just go get Jadelynne." She turned and walked out of the room.

I sighed and leaned against my pillows. I couldn't believe I was about to breast feed my baby. It seemed weird that I would just pull my bra down while she helped me breast feed. I already felt a little awkward about it, but I reminded myself that this nurse, Hannah, was in the room when I gave birth to Jadelynne. Helping me breast feed was probably nothing compared to helping give birth.

A minute or two later, Hannah came in pushing the little cart. She stood at my bedside and then looked at me. "Ready?"

I nodded. "Yep, let's give it a try."

"Okay then," She leaned down and gently picked up Jadelynne, whom made the beginning sounds as if she was about to start crying. "Oh, I know, it's okay, precious." she said gently and then walked around the cart and transferred Jadelynne to my arms. "Here's Mama,"

I smiled at my daughter. "Hey baby," I whispered and leaned down and kissed her forehead.

The next few minutes felt really awkward, but it didn't seem to bother Hannah in any way possible. She told me that most ladies have trouble breast feeding the first time and that their baby doesn't latch properly, but Jadelynne did almost immediately. She also said that if it hurt or pinched, she was latched on incorrectly, but that if it just felt like a little bit of tugging, she was latched properly. All I felt was some tugging, so I knew Jadelynne was latched correctly.

"There you go." said Hannah with a smile. "You are breast feeding your baby."

"Oh, my gosh," I said and looked down at Jadelynne. I had a pillow under her to help her stay held up, but she was turned towards me more than being on the pillow. Her tummy was facing my tummy, which was how it was supposed to be. "I didn't expect this to be so calming." I had all my hair swept to the right side since Jadelynne was being breast fed on the left side.

"Yeah, it can be very calming." she said. "It's also a great bonding moment between mother and baby."

"Yeah…I can tell." I whispered. All I could do was stare at Jadelynne. She kept blinking her eyes, which would cause her to bat her eyelids and each time she did that, I could feel a tug in my heart. I couldn't get over how much I loved her.

"Well…I'll give you guys some privacy." She walked around the cart and headed towards the door. Before she walked out, she looked back at me and said, "I'll be back in here in about fifteen minutes to see how you're doing, but you seem to be doing great."

I nodded. "Yeah,"

She smiled and walked out, closing the door behind her.

I looked down at my baby and just stared at her face. I couldn't wait for morning so I could take her home with me. Looking at her beautiful little face, I couldn't believe that there was a time where I didn't want her. I'm so glad my mom made me hold her; if she hadn't done that, I would still think I didn't want her and she probably would have been given up for adoption. Just thinking about someone else claiming my baby as theirs made a chill go up my spine.

A few minutes later, I heard a knock on the door. "Tori?" I heard Hannah say.

"Come in," I called out.

She stuck her head in my room and said, "Would you be up to having a visitor?"

"Uh…" I glanced down at Jadelynne and looked back up at Hannah. "Is it a boy?" I'd feel awkward if a boy came in and saw me nursing my baby.

She chuckled. "No, it's a girl."

"Oh, okay," I said. "She can come in."

Hannah stepped out and then Jade walked in. "Hey Tori,"

"Hi Jade," I said with a smile. "Not that I don't want you here, but why are you here? And at this hour?"

"Couldn't sleep," she said and closed the door. "I thought I'd come by here to see if you were awake and it looks like you are." She walked up to my bedside. "Now I know why you asked the nurse if I was boy."

I giggled. "Yeah, sorry. I just…I didn't want a boy in here while doing this."

"I understand that." she said. "So…does that…hurt?"

"Nope," I said and looked down at Jadelynne. "And it's not supposed to. If it hurt, it would mean that the baby wasn't latched on properly. Sorry, I hope this isn't a weird conversation."

"No, it's fine," she told me. "I mean, I'm watching her do it, so it's not that weird."

I giggled and looked back down at Jadelynne. I was looking from Jade and Jadelynne every once in awhile. "You know…you'd think this would be awkward, but…it's not. It feels natural and…very calming." I gently ran my hand over Jadelynne's head, trying not to touch her soft spot. "It's one of the most calming moments since I've had her."

"Yeah, you look really calm." said Jade and then she sighed. "Tori…I wanna tell you something."

"What is it?" I asked quietly.

"I'm…I'm really sorry for all the times I've been mean to you." she said. "I mean, some of the things I did was awful. If I could take back what I did, I would. I'm really sorry."

I smiled at her. "Jade, it's okay. You kind of made it up to me when you called the police at that store."

"Why do you always bring that up?" she asked. She was trying to sound serious, but she had a slight smile.

"Because you don't realize how glad I am that you did that." I said. "Like you don't understand, I was scared to death to tell someone who I was. When the police did show up to the store, it took me like an hour to finally reveal who I was. That man had me scared out of my mind."

"Yeah, I could tell." she said. "Did you know it was me when we were standing side by side at the store?"

"Not when you just standing there, because I wasn't looking at you, but when you said something about wearing sunglasses in the store, I looked at you and I immediately knew it was you. I would know your voice anywhere."

She smiled. "That's why you were staring at me. I thought you had a staring problem or something,"

"No," I said with a giggle. "I just couldn't believe it was you. When did you realize it was me?"

"Well, when that man called you over to him and you told him you were coming, I recognized your voice, but I didn't know where I'd heard it from." I looked at her odd. "I mean, come on, it had been six months since I'd heard your voice. I didn't recognize it right off, but then when you spoke again, I was sure that it was you. That was when I immediately grabbed my phone and called the police."

"What was your first thought when you realized it was me?" I asked.

"Just…oh, my gosh, that's really her!" she said. "I couldn't believe it. My hands were shaking while dialing, but I managed to put the right number in and the police showed up soon after."

"Wait, so…did you stay in the store while they were questioning me and that man?"

"I was there for the first fifteen minutes," she said. "But then I realized that it would take awhile, so I went home. I hid away in my room with my TV on the news, hoping they would say something about you, and they finally did. It was soon after that that Andre called me to say that you'd been found, but…I already knew."

I giggled. "I guess Andre was pretty excited."

"Dude, I've never heard him that excited." she said. "You know I've never seen Andre as depressed as he was while you were missing. Did you guys get together right before you went missing?"

"It was literally the night before." I told her.

"Yeah, well, we didn't find out that you guys were together for another few weeks," she said. "We knew you and Andre were best friends, so it made sense that he was really upset, but he was more than upset. You know how he's always smiling and having a good time?" I nodded. "He never smiled and he moped around a lot. We were at lunch one day and he was just sitting there staring into space. I said, 'Andre, snap out of it. We all miss her.'"

"Wait, but I thought school had been released for summer," I said confused.

"Oh, yeah, it had been, but we were all eating lunch at a restaurant." she said. "We were taking a break from searching."

I nodded and let her continue.

"Anyway, after I said that, he looked up at me and gave me a very cold stare. Finally, he said, 'I've been in love with her since I met her and we finally got together, but then she just had to go missing. So excuse me for not being all happy.' He got up and left the restaurant."

I slowly smiled. Andre never told me about that. "He said that?" I said quietly.

"Mhmm," she said. "We all just kind of set there pretty confused about what had just happened. I actually felt bad for telling him to snap out of it and I apologized to him for it the next day and he said it was okay, but that he just missed you."

I nodded. "Was he that depressed for the whole six months I was missing?"

"Not for the whole six months, but it was for a good bit of it," she said. "The only time he didn't show signs of depression was while we were searching for you. He put all his energy in trying to find you." She slowly smiled. "Hey, I know this is random, but did you and Andre ever have a song?"

"Uh…no, not really," I said confused. "Why?"

"Well…one day at lunch…I think it was the middle of November…Cat came up to the lunch table and played a song from her phone. By the first verse, Andre was in tears. I acted like I didn't notice, but I did. By the end of the song, he was almost crying. He got up and left the table."

"What song was it?" I asked quietly.

"Have you ever heard 'I Run to You' by Lady Antebellum?"

My eyes widened and I instantly had a flashback, but it was a good one. One before I was kidnapped.

_I looked at Andre and smiled. "Ready?"_

"_Yep, are you?"_

_I nodded. "Hit it,"_

_Andre pressed play and the music started to play. Soon, we were singing the words to it._

_(Andre) I run from hate, I run from prejudice_

_I run from pessimist, but I run too late_

_(Me) I run my life or is it running me, run from my past_

_I run too fast or too slow it seems_

_(Both) When lies become the truth_

_That's when I run to you_

_This world keeps spinning faster_

_Into a new disaster, so I run to you_

_I run to you, baby_

_When it all starts coming undone_

_Baby, you're the only one I run to_

_I run to you_

_We run on fumes_

_Your life and mine like the sands of time slippin' right on through_

_And our love's the only truth_

_That's why I run to you_

_This world keeps spinning faster_

_Into a new disaster, so I run to you_

_I run to you, baby_

_When it all starts coming undone_

_Baby, you're the only one I run to_

_I run to you_

_(Andre) Whoa_

_(Me) Oh, I run to you_

_(Both) This world keeps spinning faster_

_Into a new disaster, so I run to you_

_I run to you, baby_

_When it all starts coming undone_

_Baby, you're the only one I run to_

_(Me) I run to you_

_(Both) I run to you, yeah_

_(Andre) Whoa_

_(Me) Oh, I run to you_

_(Andre) I run to you, girl, whoa_

_I always run to you_

_(Me) Run to you_

_Run to_

_I put the microphone down and looked up at Andre. He was smiling at me. "Well?" I asked._

_He laid the mic down. "Perfect," He walked up to me and grabbed me in a tight hug. "Absolutely perfect,"_

_I tightly hugged him back for a moment before we both pulled apart. Our eyes caught and we just stared into each other's eyes. We both slightly leaned in, but then I smiled and cleared my throat. "Um…I…I gotta go." I backed up a little bit._

"_Now?" he asked._

"_Uh…yeah," I told him. "I have…a lot of homework to finish."_

"_But it's Friday night," he said. "Why would you wanna do your homework on Friday night?"_

"_I don't know." I mumbled. "I just do." I cleared my throat again. "I'll see you later." I turned to walk out of the room, but I guess I wasn't watching where I was going, because I ran into the wall next to the door._

_Andre let out a muffled chuckle. "Watch where you're going there, girl."_

_ My cheeks flushed red, but I still managed a small smile. "Yeah, I'm clumsy. Bye," I quickly walked out of the room and out of the school as quickly as I could._

I smiled and looked up at Jade. She raised her eyebrows. "Okay, uh…you had a really weird look on your face. Are you okay?"

I shrugged with a smile. "Just having a flashback,"

"A flashback?" she asked. "And you were smiling about that?"

"No, it was a good flashback." I said. I told her about what went on in my flashback and she was smiling widely by the end of the story.

"You ran into a wall?" she asked with a giggle.

"Yep," I said.

"Wow, you're such a klutz."

I sighed. Jade would never change. "You know…changing the subject, there was this one time I heard people searching for me." I didn't know why I was telling this to Jade. It hurt so much to talk about, but for some reason, I wanted Jade to know more of what happened to me. It was good in releasing some of the pain. "I was…sitting with the man in his house and…I heard yelling outside. I looked out the window and I saw people in orange vests walking down the streets and it sounded like they were calling out my name. I stood up and said, 'They're looking for me,'

"The man basically laughed in my face and said, 'Let them look. They won't find you.'

"I crossed my arms and said, 'Unless I go out and expose myself,' and he did not like me saying that. I got punished for that."

She gulped. "What did he do?" she whispered.

"Strapped me to the bed and beat me." I said.

"Oh, my gosh, Tori, that's awful," she said. "Is that the worst thing he did?"

I eyed her. "Jade…I have a baby because of him. What does that tell you?"

She slightly blushed. "Oh, yeah, right. Sorry," She cleared her throat. "So…I know he scared you really badly, but…what made you not wanna tell the police officer who you were? If I'm getting too personal, just tell me and I'll stop."

"Oh, no, it's fine," I said. "Um...basically…he threatened me. He told me that if I ever revealed my true self to anyone that he'd kill me, my family, and my friends. It was bad enough when he said me and my family, but when he brought my friends in the mix, it made it a hundred times worse." I hesitated. "I mean, he was obviously bluffing about doing anything, but at the time, I didn't think he was. I thought he was being serious."

She nodded. "Did he ever…almost kill you?"

"So many times," I said. "His favorite game was choking me. There were times when I thought he would never let go, but then he finally would. That's why I had handprint bruises around my neck a lot."

Jade was about to ask another question, but the door opened and Hannah walked in. "Hey girls," she said. "Tori, are you still doing okay?"

"Yeah," I looked down at Jadelynne. She was still fluttering her eyes. "Doing good,"

"Great," she said. "Just press the call button if you need anything."

"Okay, thanks," I said and then she walked out.

Jade turned and looked at me. "Wow, it must be pretty cool getting waited on hand and foot."

I shrugged. "It's okay, I guess. I'd rather go home, though."

"Yeah, I bet," she said. "So…what did it feel like to finally be away from him?"

"It felt surreal." I said. "I thought I was gonna be with this man forever; that's how he made it sound. Just…I don't know. It was an amazing feeling, to say the least."

"Yeah," she whispered. "And I bet it was great seeing your family again."

I smiled. "It was the best thing ever. I hugged and cried with all of them."

"Even Trina?"

I giggled and said, "Yes, even Trina,"

She smiled. "You know…I gotta be honest. When we all came to your house the day you were found, I nearly cried while you and Andre were hugging. I think all of us nearly did. I don't mean this to be rude, but you don't understand how happy Andre was to see you. I bet he was holding onto you tightly."

"He was, but I was holding on tightly as well," I said. "I missed him so much."

"Aww, you didn't miss any of your other friends?" she asked jokingly.

"Of course I missed you guys!" I exclaimed. "Why do you think I hugged all of you guys so tightly? I was so happy to all of you." I hesitated. "What was your reaction when you saw me on the steps?"

"Well, we actually didn't think we'd get to see you that day." she told me. "Your mom was talking to us and saying that you were taking a shower and would probably be going to bed afterwards since you were exhausted and that it would be better if we dropped by the next morning, but Andre kept arguing with her and saying that we had to see you. Your mom was saying something, but then we heard your voice from the stairs. We all looked at you and…it was you."

"Wow, you looked at me and it was me," I said. "Who would've thought?"

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. It's like…we hadn't seen you in six months solid and to just see you standing there, alive and well, was…I don't even know the right words. It was amazing to say the least."

I nodded. "Yeah, I was kidding. It was pretty amazing for me to see all you guys. It just felt like I hadn't seen you guys in forever. I always found it annoying when Robbie talked about Rex and his Northridge girls, but when he was talking about them that day, I found it so cool. All the simple things made me happy."

"And can you believe that it was the next day when you found out you were pregnant?" she said. "That's really crazy to think about since you have your baby with you now."

I nodded. "Yeah, no kidding," I looked down at Jadelynne. She seemed a little fidgety. "Uh Jade? Can you…look away for a sec?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," she said and looked down and covered her eyes.

I gently pulled Jadelynne away and then pulled my bra back on and pulled my straps back on my shoulders. I was already wearing a special kind of bra that wouldn't let it show if I leaked a little. "Okay, you can open your eyes now."

She looked up. "Better?"

"Yeah," I said and then pulled my knees up and laid Jadelynne on my thighs. I pulled the sleeves to my gown back on my shoulders and then picked Jadelynne back up and held her against my chest. "Just had to get situated,"

"And are you situated?" she asked.

"Yep," I said. "Hey I have a question…why are you being so nice to me?"

She raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you used to be really mean, but ever since I was found, you've hardly been mean to me at all." I said. "I'm actually seeing the nice side of Jade."

She sighed heavily. "I guess…I don't know."

"You don't know?" I asked. "So…you're being nice to me just because?"

"Why are you making me say it?" she said aggravated. This was the Jade I was used to.

"Because I'm curious and because I can't read minds." I told her. "Can you please just tell me?"

"Fine," she said still aggravated. "The truth is…I didn't think you'd be found and I told myself that if by some crazy miracle you were found that I'd be nice to you. So…it's kind of like a second chance."

"Aww, that's so nice, Jade," I said. "If I wasn't holding Jadelynne right now, I'd hug you."

"Okay, this is so incredibly confusing." she said. "First it's Jade, then Jadelynne, then Jade, and blah! I'm so confused!"

I laughed at her confusion. "Okay…you're Jade and my daughter is Jadelynne. I won't call her Jade; it will be Jadelynne."

"But my name is Jadelynne," she said. "I still get called that if I'm in trouble or something, so I respond to both."

I raised my eyebrows. "Want me to name her after someone else?"

"Oh, no, no, that's okay," she said. "I'll get used to it."

"Good," I said and looked at Jadelynne's face. "Hey beautiful…are you sleeping?" I ran my hand over her back and she stirred a little, but she stayed asleep.

"She is so adorable!" said Jade. She shook her head and said, "I used to hate babies, but there is no way I could hate your baby. She is absolutely precious."

"Thank you," I said. "I can't wait to get home with her."

"I can imagine," she told me.

I smiled and nodded and just watched Jadelynne sleep. Then suddenly, I thought of something that I talked about with Andre from awhile back. I told myself that I would talk to Jade about it, but I never got the chance to. Now that we were alone, it was the perfect. "Uh…Jade?"

"Yeah?"

"For some reason, I just thought about this, so it will sound really random." I started off. "Do you remember when I sang for the Platinum Music Awards?"

She nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"And…at the last minute, you gave me my spot back to perform? Remember?"

"Yeah," she told me. "It was me that did that."

"Yeah, but still. It was awhile back, so I wasn't sure if you remembered or not," I sighed shakily. "Andre told me, the day I was found, that…the video chat had been left on and so…you saw me and Beck talking and…almost kiss."

She slowly nodded. "Yeah…I did,"

"If Beck and I almost kissed, why would you be so nice to me?"

"Well, first of all, Beck and I were broken up at the time." she said. "As much as I didn't like it, I didn't have a right to say anything. We weren't even dating. And…I wanted to be mad at you, but if you remember right, Beck wanted to kiss you and you refused because of me. So…I don't know, it was just the fact that you would be so considerate in that way."

I nodded. "I felt that it was wrong to be kissing my friend's ex-boyfriend."

"So now that I answered your question, I have one." She cleared her throat. "You told Beck that you wouldn't kiss him because of me. What if I wasn't in the picture? Would you have kissed Beck?"

"I…I…I don't know." I said honestly. "Maybe. Don't kill me, but…I kinda liked Beck in that way. We were becoming really good friends and the more time I spent with him, the more I liked him. But at the same time, you and I had a friendship. It was a very small one and very fragile, but because of the history we've had, I felt that we were kinda friends. And…even though I thought you weren't watching, a part of me knew that if Beck and I did kiss, it would get back to you somewhere. And I didn't wanna ruin that." I sighed. "So…we forgot about it; Beck and I never spoke of it again. Then…you and he got back together. And then Andre and I got together. Truth be told, I've loved Andre from the very first time I met him. There was this connection we had that Beck and I just don't have. Don't get me wrong, Beck is a really cool guy. He's been there for me when no one else has. So…I do consider him one of my best friends. But…after entering a relationship with Andre, I realize that he's the only guy I wanted to be with. One of my worst fears while missing was that Andre had found someone else. It was very selfish of me, because I knew we weren't technically together anymore. A part of me was still hoping he didn't find someone else."

"He never even went on a date with anyone while you were gone," said Jade. "Girls would talk to him and try to ask him out, but he always refused. He didn't wanna go out with anyone after he'd already committed to you…even though you were far away."

I smiled. "You know…I know that LA is so huge, but the man and I never left LA. We were in a bad part of it, but we were still in LA the whole time."

"Yeah, but not that we would know that," she said. "For all we knew, you could have been in some other country."

I giggled. "Yeah, but I wasn't. I never left the city."

Just then, Hannah walked in the room; this meant she would be taking Jadelynne to the baby ward. She seemed shocked that I wasn't still breast feeding. "Oh, hi guys. How did the nursing go, Tori?"

"It went great." I said. "It came naturally for me. It's weird how some women can't get to go right for them."

"Every woman is different," she said gently. "Well…I think you need to get some rest, so would it be okay if I take Jadelynne back to the baby ward?"

At first I was gonna object and say I wasn't tired, but I really was tired. My eyelids were getting heavy. I nodded and said, "Yeah, it's okay, but I haven't burped her yet."

"I can do that for you for you'd like." she told me.

I nodded and then lifted Jadelynne up to hand off to Hannah. Before I did, I whispered in her ear, "I love you, baby girl." and then I handed her off.

I tried to be quiet saying that, but Jade and Hannah still heard me. Jade smiled and Hannah said, "If you wake up in the night, you can come by and visit her. She's not going anywhere." She put her in the little cart.

"Thanks, but…I'm really tired, so I'll probably sleep through the night."

"Alright, well if you don't…you know where she is." She got the cart with her and walked out with it.

I looked down and crossed my arms. I cleared my throat and said shakily, "I just hate it every time Jadelynne leaves the room. I wish she could stay with me forever."

"You'll have your whole life with her." said Jade gently. "After tomorrow, you can have her and never let her go."

I giggled and then yawned. "Well, I'll have to let her go sometime. She'll grow up, graduate high school, and then leave." My eyes filled up with tears thinking about that. "No!" I put my hands over my eyes. "I don't want that to happen."

"Tori," said Jade with a sigh. "That's eighteen years from now. You have plenty of time with her."

"Yeah, but it's just scary to think about."

"I know." she said and then looked at the TV. Some old sitcom was on. "Hey, what's this?" She set down on my bed. I scooted over and she laid down on the bed.

"I don't know," I said. "I was flipping through channels before Jadelynne was brought in and I guess I forgot to turn it off when she came in."

She nodded. We watched the show on low volume for awhile, but then we both got really sleepy. I was about to ask Jade if she was gonna go home, but I was asleep before I could ask her.

….

**And I obviously don't own "I Run to You" by Lady Antebellum! Please review!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Last chapter, guys! I hope you all enjoyed the story :) and if you're sad that it's over, I've got a sequel coming your way! It won't be a long sequel, but it'll put some last final things into place, so Tori can officially move on from what happened…**

**Enjoy! :D**

…..

Tori's POV

"Tori?" I heard someone whisper. "Tori, wake up,"

I groaned and opened my eyes. Jade was standing at my bedside looking exhausted. "Jade?" I said and set up. "I figured you'd gone home last night."

"I fell asleep," she said and yawned. "It's almost nine-thirty, so I figured I'd head home. My mom's probably freaking out." She headed towards the door.

"Okay," I said sleepily. "Oh and Jade?"

"Yeah?" she said and turned to me.

"Thanks for being here last night." I told her. "I enjoyed our talk."

"Me too," she said smiling. "See ya later,"

I waved and she walked out the door.

A few minutes later, my parents and Trina came in with Jadelynne. I had never been more excited in all my life. I was getting to go home with my baby. I also couldn't wait to get her into something that fit her better since her clothes were way too big for her.

On the way home, something occurred to me. "Hey Mom? Does Jadelynne have clothes?" I had made it perfectly clear before she was born that I wouldn't wanna keep my baby, but now that she was here, I wanted her more than anything.

"Yes, we do," she said. "I got some pink clothes, yellow clothes, and blue clothes since I wasn't sure what you were gonna have, but now that we know, we can exchange the blue stuff for more pink stuff."

I slowly smiled. "Did you know all along that I would wanna keep my baby?"

"Tori…I have two daughters." she said with a smile. "I know what it's like to look at your baby and feel like nothing else in the world matters." I nodded. "It's a feeling that only mothers know and as a mother, I knew you'd want your baby once you saw her. I was ninety-nine percent sure that once you laid eyes on her you'd want her. As soon as I saw your face when I put her in your arms, I knew you loved her and that you wanted her. I didn't even have to hear you say it."

"Aww," said Trina and I at the same time. We both looked at each other peculiarly for a moment, but then we both smiled. This was the first time in a long time that we'd said the same thing at the exact same time. It was like good old times.

As soon as I got home, I took Jadelynne up to my room and changed her into a little pink outfit. I laid her on my bed and stood up. She was staring up at me with an innocent little face. I giggled and leaned over and grabbed her hands. I kissed her forehead and then said, "Welcome to your new home, baby girl."


End file.
